Handling pressure

We all face circumstances that put us under a tremendous amount of pressure and stress. No one is immune. Jesus experienced it in the garden of Gethsemane when he asked the Father if it was okay that he not go to the cross. He sweat drops of blood. What pressure!

My life verse for many years was, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Now, there were people in Paul's culture who like him had learned to be content. We refer to them as the Stoics. They trained themselves to be self-sufficient. And, to a degree, Paul shared their emphasis on contentment, but with a twist.

You see, for Paul it wasn't self-sufficiency but Christ Sufficiency. The stoic's sufficiency/contentment came from their own inner strength. Paul's came from outside, from being a man IN Christ on whom he was totally dependent and thus not independent at all in the Stoic sense.

You see there are two ways to handle pressure.

One is illustrated by the bathysphere, which is a miniature submarine.

It is used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a regular sub like a tin can. Bathyspheres compensate for the pressure with a steel hull that is several inches thick. They are small and cramped. When scientists in bathyspheres reach the ocean floor, however, they find they are not alone.

When the outside lights are turned on and they look out the thick windows, they see fish. These fish cope with extreme pressure in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins; instead they remain elastic and free.

They compensate for the pressure outside through equal and opposite pressure inside themselves. You see maturing Christians aren't hard, thick-skinned stoics. They are moved by the needs around them. They care about what happens to themselves or others. But, they have learned to rely on God's power within to enable them to withstand the pressure from without.

As Paul said, It is Christ IN you the hope of glory.

You know we tend to say, I am okay...UNDER the circumstances. But circumstances were never meant to be something Christians get UNDER. With Christ's indwelling power we can be ABOVE the circumstances of life.

This word translated "strengthens" is also a rare word in the Greek but it is one that Paul used quite often. In I Timothy 1:12 he said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who has STRENGTHENED me. In II Timothy 4:17 he said, But the Lord stood with me, and STRENGTHENED me.

In Ephesians 6:10 he said, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the STRENGTH of His might. The word means to infuse strength or to put power into. This strength, then, was not something that Paul conjured up from within.

No it was a power that was infused into his life. Paul's statement in verse 13 was not an expression of self-confidence but rather God-confidence.

I take my strength from God today.