I’ve been thinking a lot about pressure lately. Everyone faces pressure from time to time. It could be financial pressure, relational pressure, peer pressure. It seems like pressure comes in waves. We may have seasons where we feel like life is light and free and then others where it feels like everything is pressing down on us.
I have to believe that I am not alone in this.
Some of the most difficult pressure that we have to deal with is the pressure that we put on ourselves. Much of this kind of pressure comes from our desire to preserve our image. We don’t want people to think negatively about us, so we say yes to every invitation. This creates pressure in our time and our relationships. We want to look like we are doing well so we buy things we can’t afford to impress people we don’t even like. This creates financial pressure. We struggle with temptation and sin and we don’t want people to know so we keep our struggles secret. This creates spiritual pressure.
There are also sources of pressure that come from external sources. Our company is downsizing, our parents are depressing, our kids are rebelling, and on and on.
Dealing with all that pressure on our own can be exhausting. I am so grateful that Jesus invites us to come to him with all our pressures and he shoulders them for us. The worries and fears and challenges that you stay up all night fretting about … Jesus wants those.
If we try to handle them on our own we will can get crushed under the pressure. It’s because of Jesus that Paul can say,
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
– 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
How we walk with Jesus through that pressure reveals the life Of Jesus in us and through us.
I know in the pressures that I am facing right now that Jesus can be glorified. I know that the enemy would love for me to try to deal with this pressure on my own, but if I walk wit Jesus through this pressure something wonderful can come about.
But I need to trust Jesusnwith these pressures and so do you. Will you give your pressures over to Jesus?
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