The Purpose of Pressure

 Job 41-42; 2 Corinthians 1-2 

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life…But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”

2 Corinthians 1:8, 9

When God allows hardships, suffering, and great pressure in the course of living on mission with him, we can either become discouraged and question God, or we can cry out to God in radical dependence and surrender. When this pressure seems far beyond our ability to endure, we must begin new patterns of prayer and radical dependence on God. God uses pressure to expand our capacity to live by faith and full dependence on him. The same power that raised Christ from the dead now indwells us through the Holy Spirit. Prayer connects us to God and to one another, and prayer is the way God invites us to respond to great pressure. Our new capacities in prayer then become the “new normal”.

“Lord Jesus, I yield myself to you and rely on you for all your resources this day, for your glory.”