Do you have pressures in your life today?  Does the world seem to be crashing in on you?  In the Christian life, we are guaranteed to experience pressures. The 1828 Webster dictionary defines pressure as the state of being squeezed or crushed.  That is ever so true for each and every one of us as we walk in the Christian life.  Many people preach and teach that when a person comes to Christ, it is “a good life.” This means it is a life filled with few difficulties, little distress and very little pain, suffering or grief.  As a result, whenever there is an encounter with anything painful or any degree of pressure, a cry goes out to God for Him to remove that pressure.  How sad that is! We see from the Old Testament believers and New Testament saints, that when the trials and tribulations were faced, great power came upon them!  The word power means a force that is with someone. We know this force is the power of the Holy Spirit of God – the power of Christ in us and through us.  If we want to experience the power, we have to accept the pressure.  The pressure is what leads to the power.

I find this truth so necessary to teach to those who work in RU programs. As students get saved and begin to develop spiritually, many of them not only bring baggage into their new walk with Christ, but they also begin to experience new pressures as the result of being “in Christ”.   I have noticed that many people want the power of Christ to rest upon them so that they can deal with these pressures. But my friend, I believe that it is noteworthy to see in the Bible that the pressure comes before the power. That is a spiritual law in God’s Word.   There is no need for the power if there is no pressure.  Therefore, God allows that pressure to come into our lives.  For a Christian to know what true spiritual power is, he first needs to know what pressure is.  Pressure was always with those in the Old and New Testament.  They were daily pressed and heavily burdened. Yet it was precisely because they were weighed down exceedingly, that there was no one who had such power as they.  For the pressure caused them to look only to God.

Looking back at my own life, I have seen that it was during the times of extreme amounts of pressure, the power of God rested upon my life.  It is important to understand that pressure always comes before power.  Unfortunately, we are inclined to reverse the order.  Why?  It is in our nature, “the old man,” to reverse the order.  We want power for dealing with pressure, but God’s way is not man’s way.  It is higher.  He only grants power proportionately to the pressure we accept as we look toward Him.  God would have us learn the lessons.  Whenever we are encountering new pressure, we should convert it into new power.  If we do this, our ability to wield spiritual power grows with each and every new encounter of pressure.

There are many kinds of pressures to deal with.  Pressures come from our sin, our needs, our circumstances, our emotions; our sufferings, pain and grief; But no matter what the reason for the pressure or which direction it comes from, we have to remember all pressure comes with a purpose.  That purpose is for you to experience the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul spoke of it when he said “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…” (Philippians 3:10) Unfortunately, no one wants to read the last part of the verse: “…and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death”.   It is through the fellowship of His suffering that we experience this great power.

Do not ignore, abhor, or push away the pressures….remember, pressures precede His Power!

Have a wonderful day IN the Lord!
Benjamin R. Burks

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I was never a “bad” kid, when I was growing up, not by the world’s standards.  As a child, my parents did many bad things to me; things that would affect me much of the rest of my life.  I was raised in the Lutheran Church.  There I was taught about God, that Jesus died on the cross for me!  I wanted to go to heaven some day, when I died, but I didn’t know how to get there.  People always told me that God loved me but I didn’t really believe it.  I wanted to find someone who would truly love me.

All my life, I grew up feeling like I was unlovable.  I thought there was something wrong with me that no one loved me.  If my own family didn’t love me, how could God love me, when I really didn’t know Him or have a relationship with Him?  I tried to find ways to make my family love me.  I found that I was pretty good at sports so I immersed myself in them.  I joined the military, and went off to college all in vain attempts to find love.  Nothing worked!  While at college, wanting to fit in and be loved, I began drinking heavily and doing drugs.  I just wanted someone to say that they cared for me!

One spring day, one of my teammates shared the gospel with me and for the first time I realized that it had nothing to do with me!  It was all about what Jesus did for me!  He paid the price, he loved me enough to take my sin on Himself and pay the price for them with His own precious blood!  I realized that there was nothing that I had to do, not getting my family to be proud of me, not their love for me or their approval would get me to heaven, but God’s love and sacrifice was all that I needed.    That day I trusted Jesus as my Saviour and I began a new relationship with Him!  I didn’t know much else about God, so I remained in the Lutheran church.

At college, I met a boy who told me he loved me.  We married and 15 yrs. later I found out that he never truly loved me.  I had wanted so badly to find someone to love me that I was blinded to things that I should have noticed and been obvious to me long before I married him.  I was devastated for a long time.

I poured myself into my children.  I committed my everything to them in hope that they would love me!  Then my best friend had to move away but her brother and his family were moving in next door to me. I already knew them so I felt better.  They were going to a Baptist church and had invited my kids and I.

I went to church with them and discovered that there was a place where God’s word was preached without apology or compromise!  I knew right away that I needed to join that church.  I knew that if I wanted to learn to live right and to have a better life for me and my kids that FBC is where we needed to be.
We joined the church and through the grace of God, I have grown in the Lord!  I was struggling with a smoking addiction that I just could not overcome.  When Preacher announced that they were going to be starting an addictions program called RUI, I thought that this would finally be what I needed to overcome my addiction.  Although I had tried to quit many times before, I just could never do it.

I began to work the program and God started to prick at my heart, regarding my smoking.  Finally I gave up!  I gave it to God!  I told Him that I could not do it, I needed Him to help me.  He did and I have been free from the addiction of smoking for the last 3 and ½ yrs.  Fast forward to the day I found out that I was sick, very sick with cancer. Even though I knew better, I stopped relying on the Lord and went back to my smoking.  It was my “security blanket”.  I know that I truly hurt my Saviour’s heart when I did that but I felt so alone and once again as if no one loved me, not even my Lord!

Recently, God has shown me some areas in my life that I needed to deal with.  I have never dealt with the feelings of being unlovable  and that has plagued me all of my life.  I have always felt unloved and worthless all of my life.  Even though I know that God loves me, I still struggle with feeling like He really does love me.  I know myself better than anyone and I am well aware of my shortcomings, therefore it is hard for me to understand how He could love someone like me!  I am going through a process now, of painstakingly breaking down the walls that I have built up in my life over the last nearly 50 years.  I am beginning to understand that God does love me!  I am starting to understand that I am someone who could be loved by God and others.

Looking back over my life, I can see God’s hand in much of my life, guiding me every step of the way.  God is so merciful to me; He truly does love even a sinner like me.

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