Pressed beyond measure; yes, pressed to great length; Pressed so intensely, beyond my own strength; Pressed in my body and pressed in my soul, Pressed in my mind till the dark surges roll. Pressure from foes, and pressure from dear friends. Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends. Pressed into knowing no helper but God; Pressed into loving His staff and His rod. Pressed into liberty where nothing clings; Pressed into faith for impossible things. Pressed into living my life for the Lord, Pressed into living a Christ-life out poured. ~A. B. Simpson
This special poem reminds me of 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, where Paul speaks of Christian suffering:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
As followers of Christ, we should expect to have a life experience similar to His own while He walked this Earth. Christ’s 33 years here were punctuated by misunderstanding, rejection, betrayal, and very real temptation. Do you relate to any of these words in your own life experience?
Following Christ is no walk in the park or bed of sunshine and roses. It comes with a set of trials and challenges all its own. Two opposing forces are fighting for domination in our lives: the transformation of God’s loving hand at work, and the hindrance of Satan’s evil ploy to stop God’s hand of love. So, where does victory lie? The secret is in verse 10 of our 2 Corinthians passage: the dying of the Lord Jesus. Just as Christ’s death on the Cross was sin’s only antidote, death to self is the only way we will foil Satan’s attacks and allow God’s transforming to come to full fruition in our hearts.
But how do we die to self? Verse 7 gives us a clue: that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of us. We are not able to die to self on our own … we don’t have that kind of power. But God does. He had enough power to raise His dead Son from a cold, dark grave, conquering sin and death once forever. Don’t you think that same power can enable us to have victory as we walk through this journey of life?
When you steep a tea bag, you cover the cup, right? What happens when you do that? The mounting pressure and heat in the covered cup allows the essence of the tea to escape from the tea bag into the cup, and the flavor and aroma of the tea permeates the water and the surrounding air. The tea is released so you can enjoy it in beverage form instead of chewing on bitter tea leaves (yuck!).
The same process is in play when God sends trials into our lives. We are like the tea bag, and the sweet nature of God Himself, infused into us at salvation, is the crushed tea inside the bag. When trials heat up our lives and put pressure on us, the power of God (if we take it) allows God’s nature–His very essence–to escape into the open, permeating the vicinity with the aroma of God and His Presence. God’s power kills our old nature of sin and makes room for His nature to shine, for the old and the new nature can never dwell in tandem. We cannot serve 2 masters; one must die. And God’s resurrection power is the only thing that can kill the old master of indwelling sin and allow God to reign as the new Master.
We will never be rid of the presence of sin during this life. We have to wait until Heaven for that. But Christ died not only to secure a home for us in a sinless Heaven, but also to give us the potential for a life free from sin’s power here on Earth. Each day is a battle between the old sin nature, which is still present with us, and new nature of God, which is ours through salvation. The old nature must die if God’s nature is to shine through. We can’t kill the old nature ourselves, but victory is ours if we will depend on God’s resurrection power to kill the old nature day by day, with each new temptation and battle.
Dear friend, will you join me in trusting God for His power today? Will you commit to depend on the Source of strength for the fight? I encourage you to confess past failures and then set them aside, just as God throws them away into the farthest and deepest sea. Success today is one choice of dependence away–will you make the choice?
Joyful Journey 