|
||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||
Commentary on "Stress""
Day 7: Friday, January 14, 2011 - Further Study
Overview
This last lesson of the week features a quotation from Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 162 in which Ellen White wrote commentary on Elijah’s depression and on how people often “lose their hold on God and are brought into the slavery of doubt, the bondage of unbelief.”
The lesson ends with discussion questions about times the reader has sunk into depression, about how helping others has helped one’s own feelings, about our health habits, and about what could be done to “enhance your relationship with God”.
Observations
Finally, on this seventh day, the problem present from the first day’s lesson has not been resolved: stress is not a problem the Bible ever asks us to address. Instead, the issue for Christ-followers is trust. For those who are not born again, the issue is belief.
Believers are kept by God Himself (Jude 1), and our discouragement is not a surprise to God, nor is our discouragement something that separates us from God if we are born again. It can impede our fellowship, but we are not separated from God by our discouragement or doubt. He continues to hold us in His grip (Jn. 10:28-29).
Stress will resolve, regardless of our circumstances, when we are alive in Jesus and surrender our fear, shame, hopes, and desires to Him. He is bigger than all our emotions, and His finished work on our behalf resolves the uncertainty of life and ushers us into the presence of the Father. His Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are His children (Romans 8:14-17), and all that is His is now ours. We can completely surrender our ambition, our ceaseless striving to measure up.
Instead of reading Ellen White and pondering the possible answers to the introspective discussion questions, read Romans 8 and memorize verse 1. When we are alive in Christ, there is no condemnation for any of us. Ever. Our condemnation was judged and paid for at the cross by the Lord Jesus.
Conclusion
If you are chronically stressed, if you are anxious and overwhelmed, depressed or discouraged, and if you have never bowed before the cross and acknowledged the Lord Jesus as your own Savior and submitted to Him as your Lord, do it now.
Tell Him that you are hopeless; you need a Savior because you are helplessly sinful and unable to please God. Ask Him to forgive you because of the price He paid by the blood of His cross. Surrender your life and your effort and your chronic pursuit of success and ask Him to be your Lord. Believe that He died for you, and trust Him with your life.
When you place your faith in the Lord Jesus, you will be born again by the Holy Spirit indwelling you, bringing your own spirit to life. You will never be the same.
Stress will no longer be the driving force in your life; you will experience real Life for the first time, and you will know the One who died for you and set you free.
Knowing Jesus is the greatest thing there is. Unless you know Him, all other attempts at good works and holy living are completely futile.
Let Jesus transform you now. He is worth everything, and He will not disappoint you.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised January 11, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 3
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 3
