I Don't Really Like Pressure ... But It IS Necessary

I Don't Really Like Pressure ... But It IS Necessary

"It was good for me to be afflicted." Psalm 119:71

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get weary of the constant pressures of life. Sometimes it seems that everything is so difficult. I find myself saying, "Why does it have to be so complicated? Why does it have to be so hard?"

We can tell when God is getting ready to show up to do something spectacular at America's KESWICK. Days before a conference or an event, it seems like everything goes crazy. The computers and copiers go nuts. Interpersonal relationships begin to surface where little things become big things.

I am sure you can relate the same from your world. A part of God always being at work around us is the awareness that He uses pressures to shape and mold us. We don't necessarily want to hear that, but He has a way of using the pressure to conform us to His image.

Yesterday I read this from STREAMS IN THE DESERT and it gave me perspective:

Dear believer, do you understand that God may take away your comforts and privileges in order to make you a stronger Christian? Do you see why the Lord always trains His soldiers not by allowing them to lie on their beds of ease but by calling them to difficult marches and service? He makes them wade through streams, swim across rivers, climb steep mountains, and walk many long marches carrying heavy backpacks of sorrow.

This is how he develops soldiers -- not by dressing them up in fine uniforms to strut at the gates of the barracks or to appear as handsome gentlemen to those who are strolling through the park. No, God knows that soldiers can only be made in battle and are not developed in times of peace. We may be able to grow the raw materials of which soldiers are made, but turning them into true warriors requires the education brought about by the smell of gunpowder and by fighting in the midst of flying bullets and exploding bombs, not by living through pleasant and peaceful times.

So dear brother, could this account for YOUR situation? Is the Lord uncovering your gifts and causing them to grow? Is He developing in YOU the qualities of a soldier by shoving you into the heat of the battle? Should you not then use EVERY gift and weapon He has given you to become a conqueror? (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

Wow! I needed to be reminded of this truth today. How about you? Pressure really is a good thing! -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 2; Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

Great Quote: Whatever the particular call is, the particular sacrifice God asks you to make, the particular cross He wishes you to embrace, whatever the particular path He wants you to tread, will you rise up, and say in your heart, "Yes, Lord, I accept it; I submit, I yield, I pledge myself to walk in that path, and to follow that Voice, and to trust Thee with the consequences"? Oh! but you say, "I don't know what He will want next." No, we none of us know that, but we know we shall be safe in His hands. Catherine Booth

Check out this week's STEWARDSHIP INSIGHT from George: http://keswickgeorge.blogspot.com/