Includes...
This time of year there is often some pressure. God can give us the ability to stay calm and poised under pressure and he also has a way out. Jesus is the way. In sports pressure is often a tactic used to force your opponent into making bad decisions. For example, in football defenses will try to pressure the quarterback in order to get him to freak out and make a bad decision. But, when a really good quarterback is playing they are not fazed by the pressure, because they know when pressure comes it leaves their opponent exposed for a big play. A good quarterback understands the situation and knows the way out of the pressure.
In basketball defenses will also try to apply full court pressure to the person handling the ball. They will often send multiple defenders to try to trap the ball handler in the corner. During these times the best thing the ball handler can do is keep moving forward with his eyes up and stay away from the corners, because once again...
How do you respond when the pressure is on? Do you stay calm and poised or do you lose control? This time of year you may be experiencing an increase in pressure. Think of a sports game or season, all of the pressure is at the end. So if you are experiencing some pressure right now it may be a sign that God is preparing you for a victory and to move you to the next level. God is not going to take away the pressure but he can work in you to handle it in a completely new way, with calm, poise, and beauty under pressure.
When God helps us stay calm, pressure can be a gift, because it helps us move to the next level faster. Most every high level athlete knows that staying relaxed and calm puts the body into a state the produces better results. The key to staying calm under pressure is rolling it over onto God. We were never meant to carry the weight of it.
Pressure and time are very related so here are a couple of things that can help to reduce pressure....
Yesterday was one of those days where it seemed like things were coming at me from every angle and there wasn't enough time to get it all done, maybe because it was Friday the 13th. As I was reflecting on this before bed I felt God nudging me to open up my book The Miracle Year. In The Miracle Year the second half of the book goes week by week through the year and talks about what we may be experiencing during different times of the year. The title for the week of August 12th was... Pressure.
This time of year is a time of increased pressure. God's major deadline for the year is coming up on the Day of Atonement(Sept 15-16), and anytime a deadline is set pressure increases as you get closer to the deadline. As the pressure increases it may also feel like time is slowing down and the days are moving slower. Pressure and time are very related.
We often view pressure as a bad thing but a little pressure is good. Pressure helps us to grow and...
We are currently in the 40 Days of Teshuva that lead up to the Day of Atonement(Sept 15-16). Teshuva means to turn or repent, and when we turn to God times of refreshing come from his presence. In God's presence there is fullness of joy and he gives us the power to enjoy the things he adds to our lives.
Have you ever had a time when you were striving after some goal or thing you wanted only to find when you got it that it didn't live up to your expectations? God can give us the power to enjoy the things he adds to our lives. Ecclesiastes 5:19 says... when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability/power to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.
I think there are two parts to this. First, we must make God our source of joy and contentment. Things on the outside such as money and stuff, aren't meant to be our source of joy and contentment, God is supposed to be that source. When he is...
There is a place on the inside of us that can only be filled with God. Think of it like a missing piece of a puzzle and people go searching to fill that void with money, success, education, food, alcohol, drugs, sex, and even other people. Eventually these things can become gods and the thing that we seek the most. You could make more money, have a PHD, and relationships but as long as this piece is missing there will be a lack contentment and fulfillment. Once God has been restored to his right place he has no problem with adding money, success, and relationships to us but we must become content first because God is with us.
An easy way to identify if this is happening is by looking for areas of life that make you want to pout, sulk, get frustrated, envious, etc? Here are some examples... Maybe you get upset because you want to make more money or have some thing(house, car, whatever) and haven't seen it yet. Or maybe you get upset because someone isn't...
We are currently in the 40 Days of Teshuva that lead up to the Day of Atonement on Sept 15-16th. Teshuva is a Hebrew word that means to turn or repent. This is a time of year to turn or make corrections. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says that when we turn to the Lord and get face to face with him that he transforms us from one degree of glory to another. Turning to God even if it is a small adjustment back to him brings us into his presence... And in his presence there is fullness of joy, transformation, and refreshing.
Acts 3:19-22 MSG says... Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus. For the time being he must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be.
As we turn to him there is grace and...
Lately Bible verses about God being in the cloud keep jumping out at me. In the Old Testament God led the people through the wilderness with a cloud that was over the tabernacle by day and night. His cloud also contained his glory. When Moses was up on the mountain God appeared to him in the cloud. Jesus was taken up to heaven in the clouds and is coming back in the clouds. And in Leviticus 16 it says that on the Day of Atonement God would appear to the High Priest in the cloud above the ark of the covenant.
The High Priest could only enter into the area with the ark of the covenant and the cloud one day per year... The Day of Atonement. And he had to take a lot of precautions otherwise he would die. But, Jesus tore the veil and we have access to God all the time now, including his presence in the cloud. In our culture we have a saying for someone who dreams a lot... "their head is in the clouds."
Because of Jesus we have the opportunity to have our...
Lately I have been thinking about how transformation often happens in the middle of things. I have been thinking of this in three parts or phases. For example, we are spirit, soul ( mind and emotions), and physical body and Romans 12:2 says we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. The transformation comes from the middle. In nutrition and exercise food is taken in, then it must be metabolized and converted into energy, and the result on the other side is work/action.
Imagine being at work and things are coming at you from every angle. It is your ability to process all of this information and turn it into the proper decisions and actions that determines much of your effectiveness in any work. Therefore, the ability to understand, process, and turn it into the correct actions is vital in many things. This three part pattern of inflow, processing and decision making, and outflow can be seen in almost every area of life. Consider money... it flows in,...
In Ezekiel 46:9 God told the people that when they came to the temple to worship they were to enter from one side and exit through the opposite side. They were not to leave the same way they came in, but in the straight or opposite direction. Think about nutrition and exercise.. Food goes into our bodies, but then it gets metabolized or converted into energy, and comes out of the body in the form of work and action. It comes out differently than it went in.
It is the conversion in the middle where the miracles happen and I believe it is the same with God. Jesus said if we would see with our eyes, hear with our ears (this is input), then understand with our hearts and turn(this is where the conversion happens), then the action or result on the other side would be healing.. and in Deuteronomy it says that prosperity also comes after turning to the Lord.
A prism is another example of this. Light comes in one way, is transformed in the middle by the...
Today we start the 40 Days of Teshuva, which means to turn or repent. These are the 40 days that lead up to the Day of Atonement (Sept 15-16). During this time of year there is a big emphasis put on taking action on anything you know to do. These are 40 days to start getting ahead of things that are coming. These could be opportunities or potential problems to start preparing for. Sometimes problems can be turned into great opportunities if you are prepared. Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 both say that a prudent man looks ahead and sees danger coming and takes refuge, while a fool sees danger coming and still keep going.
When my wife had our second daughter she had an epidural but it was put in late and she still experienced some pain and a lot of pressure. When we were preparing for our third daughter to be born she asked the doctor about this, and his response was..."We didn't get ahead of it."
When it came time for our third daughter to be born they put the...
Sign up to receive Yearly Cycle Updates delivered to your inbox.