God has a perfect way to handle pressure. First, let me remind you about His ways. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Therefore God’s way for us is to embrace pressure; it is far higher than our way of resisting it.   Everything in our lives is orchestrated by God. He is very aware of each situation in your life. He knows every thought you think, even before you think it. Every day of your life is stamped with His purpose for you. Therefore the pressures you seek to resist, are designed specifically by God for your good. “How can pressure be good?” you ask. Think about a potter. First they have to take the hard clay and begin to work water into it. Each molecule of clay must be saturated with water so it will be resilient and formable. Then, and only then can the potter apply the pressure needed to center the clay. Until the clay is centered, the potter cannot begin to form the vessel intended.

Let’s apply that to our own lives. James 1:2 in the J. B. Phillips says, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” When we choose to accept God’s higher way of forming us into His vessel, we will grow in our relationship with Him. As we center on Him, He will continue to conform us to His image. Romans 5:3-4 helps us see this progression. In the Amplified it says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.” Then He goes on to say that it is the trial that produces the fruit of endurance and developed character. Without the trials God allows in Your life, you would not grow spiritually or get to “Really” know God!   Shared with you by By Marilyn Adams