Sin Causes Stress

Not all stress is caused by sin. At least I don't think so. Maybe it is. But in any case, I know that sin does cause stress.

This week, I signed a contract to let a house (which means renting a house). After I signed it, I decided that it was too much money and didn't fit into my budget well. So I called the letting agent and asked if I could get out of the contract, that I didn't want to do it. So far, so good. But then, and this is where I went wrong, I decided to be stubborn about it and tell them that I wasn't going to honor the contract. I had lots of reasons and excuses, none of them valid as far as the contract was concerned, but in the end I just wasn't letting my "yes" be "yes" and my "no" be "no". I wasn't honoring my signature, and my word.

At this point, I've decided to honor the contract. I don't know if they will still want me to be their tenant, but I've offered to honor it. The letting agent said that they've already cancelled the furniture, so I'm sure that will be a problem, but we'll see what happens from here.

While I was being stubborn and not honoring the contract, I was very stressed out. It was hard to concentrate at work, and I couldn't get to sleep last night. But in the middle of the night, God changed my heart and showed me my sin. As soon as I repented, I could feel the stress starting to leave. But, of course, it's not enough just to change your attitude. You have to take action. So I got on the internet, worked out some financial details so that I would be able to pay the deposit, first month's rent, and the processing fee for the letting agent as soon as I could get in touch with them in the morning. Amazingly, as soon as I got that taken care of, I fell right to sleep and slept for a good 7 hours.

God is good and if we would just do what He says, we'd be much better off.

Dave