Under Pressure
As I sat in church listening to the sermon, my pastor called for anyone to come to the altar who had a need for prayer. Without hesitation I walked to the front and stood before the Lord. I had reached a point of desperation because I had been dealing with an enormous amount of pressure in my personal life. Some of these problems had kept me awake in worry many nights. While I knew to always take matters to the Lord and lay them at His feet. I found myself often picking the issue back up again trying to fix it myself. I would often worry about how long I would have to endure the pressure. I simply wanted the Lord to fix it so that I could enjoy life.
My pastor prayed that God would intervene in my situation, he prayed that the Lord would give me strength, but then he prayed something that caused me to stop and think, he said, “Lord, don’t remove the pressure, remove the anxiety associated with the pressure…” At that moment, I could feel myself resisting what he said. I didn’t agree with that. I remember thinking, “what on earth was wrong with my Pastor? “Why would he pray that? “No, I want the pressure gone!”
The rest of the day, I pondered those words, they wouldn’t escape me. “Lord, don’t remove the pressure, remove the anxiety associated with the pressure…” Quite frankly, I was a little annoyed about it, I couldn’t shake those words. A day later, I woke up out of my sleep with this thought. “How would it feel to be able to endure the pressure of my current situation and not be fazed by it?” I wondered, what type of strength would I need to have be able to walk through this storm and not be moved by it, to not lose my joy or peace in it? To literally, lay it at the feet of Jesus and keep it there? This thought was unconceivable for me. Over the course of my life, I had become a professional worrier, especially over this type of problem. Sure, I had matured over the years. I didn’t worry about matters the way I did 20 years ago. I had grown up some, but I felt as if I was hard-wired to carry matters until they were resolved. Pressure and anxiety were intertwined; they were one in the same to me. It was unimaginable to be able to walk through some problems unintimidated by them.
I then began to wonder why I had accepted this as my way of life. Not one time can I remember praying, “God keep me in this storm until I learn to be unmoved by it!” No way would I ever pray that type of prayer. My faith would always eventually arise and remind me that I needed to trust that God would fix it, but I thought it was okay to have an occasional melt down over these trials, as long as I found myself crying out to God in the end, this was an acceptable response. After all, I am a woman and we have the hormones…
Over the course of my life, I have endured a lot of hardship. Some trials were bigger than others. Some were caused by my own actions, or the actions of others, and some were simply apart of life’s journey. Thankfully, I have been able to be a testimony of Christ overcoming power in the midst of many of these situations. I didn’t fall apart over every situation I had to walk through, only certain ones. I have grown to understand; all trials are simply not created equally. There are some trials that I call trigger trials. These are trials that often bring out the worst in me. I worry more during these trials and have a lot of trouble letting go and trusting God to fix it.
This was the type of trial I was enduring when I went to the altar for prayer. I had been through this type of trial many times before and each time I allowed it to halt my faith. Unable to shake the prayer of my pastor, I began seeking the Lord about it. He took me to this scripture. “You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (James 1:3-4 MSG).
God apparently wanted to highlight an extremely deficient in this area. It was time that I recognize that this part of my life was not living up to Christ’s standards. While God wants to elevate us to new levels in Him, we often times hold ourselves back because we are unwilling to address some areas of weakness in our own life. Many times it is our own self-sabotaging decisions that are holding us back.
God does not want us to be weak. He is raising up people that can stand in the midst of adversity and be immovable, unshakeable and unfazed. He wants to strengthen us so that we have the ability to not only hold onto their peace, love and joy, but exhibit it to others so that they may see the power of Christ at work in their life.
The Apostle Paul tells us: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Over time that promise has become abbreviated to “God will never give you more than you can handle.”
Most of the time we look at that scripture as a confirmation that God is sheltering us from overbearing pain. However, we can look at this scripture in another way. God may be calling you to a place or position in Him where He may want to elevate you to do great things for Him in the Kingdom. If we look at this scripture through that lens, we can evaluate it differently. ““God will never give you more than you can handle.” If you cannot handle the pressure where you are, why would He elevate you to another level of responsibility? He is faithful and loving, He is urging you and I to grow up, get stronger and learn to shine through the pressure so He can trust you with more, elevate you and use you for His glory.
I hope that you can look at your life today and begin to highlight those trigger trials that seem to always make you stumble. Maybe you don’t fall apart in weakness as I have done in the past. Maybe you get angry, moody or overtly frustrated. Whatever the case, I urge you to allow the Lord to deal with those areas of weakness in your life, just as He continues to do with me.
God Bless!