Are You Under Pressure Today?

James 1:1-4 MSG “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. 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.”

Life is a journey, and it is not always a smooth one. Along the way, there will bends and detours. But once you grasp the scriptural truth in James 1:1-4, whenever your life is interrupted by problems or circumstances you did not anticipate, you will start to see God’s hand at work in all of it. The truth is that you are either in a trial right now, just coming out of one, or heading toward the next one. James talks about “various trials” (James 1:2); they come in every imaginable variety. If you are living you will experience life’s trials; you will get hit by trials. These trials put pressure on your faith, so be prepared to stand your ground. Only the dead are free from the trials of life. But the fact remains that it takes adversity to produce spiritual maturity. It cannot come any other way. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).” Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). Jesus was an overcomer, and because He lives in you today, you can be an overcomer too, regardless of the pressure on your faith.