Water In The Pipe

Beautiful One, did you know that when enough pressure is applied to your life, you can break?
Even the most anointed, faith-filled, powerful people will break in extreme situations. The fact is: we all have a breaking point, and none of us knows where it is until we reach it.

The Bible is filled with stories of men and women just like us; they had desires and dreams, as well as weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and pain. What made these men and women notable in the history of Gods Word? What made these people catch the attention of God and stand out? Could it be that they just took him at his Word and believed Him? Is it really that simple?

Beautiful One, why is it when we encounter trying times that we so easily forget that there is nothing new under the sun? Our trials may be new to us, but the truth is that someone somewhere has walked through the same thing before us. We need to remember that our trials are our teachers and they are meant to define our faith, not destroy it.

When we examine the lives of great men and women, often times the things that made them great were not their successes. It was the perseverance they displayed against the enormous odds that they faced. They never gave up!

Beautiful One, let me remind you that there will be seasons in life where you will feel insurmountable pressure. There will be times when nothing makes sense, including God. Everything we thought we understood inexplicably escapes our grasp.

Think of some of the people God used; Elijah for instance. God did amazing things through him. But the mighty prophet still experienced depression and fear. He laid under a juniper tree wanting to give up and die.

Then there was Abraham. The one God reckoned as righteous because of his faith. And yet, he lied! Abraham feared man more than God by telling a king Sarah was his sister, not his wife. He also tried to bring God's promise of a son to pass by going along with his wife's plan of him fathering a child with another woman.

Who can forget Peter? The hand-picked Apostle was God's choice to be the first pastor of the Christian Church. Peter walked closely with the Lord Jesus for three and half years despite the fact he cursed and had a fiery temper. His temper sometimes flared more than his faith did. Peter experienced firsthand the pain of walking away from God after he denied knowing him out of fear of what would happen to him.

All these men experienced pressure and acted in ways that did not please God. However, their faith in God and what He could do, did please the Father. God can use any person and situation He chooses. Shocker, I know, the Pharisee in us has a hard time with this truth.

There are countless men and women that God used, and he didn't use them because they were holy and wonderful. He used them in spite of themselves and the pressures they each faced, and, the good news is, He still does!

If you really think about it, God will never find anyone who has it all together to use. There is only One that is good, and that is God himself.

The truth remains that God is God, and He has the ability and power to take any pressure in our lives and use it for his glory. He can and will use any situation, even if He has to salvage it from our mistakes. God can take the pressures of life and use them to push us through the pipe of adversity and we will burst forth like never before while God receives all the glory and praise.

Beautiful One, our tragedies are actually the blueprints for our triumphs. How great will we really know God to be, if our trouble hadn't told us so? The Apostle Paul, one of the greatest witnesses that ever lived, explains it this way:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8 NIV)

Simply said; we are water in a pipe. Sometimes our lives flow and run smoothly. Other times, some junk gets caught in there and it slowly decreases our flow. After awhile, we are nothing more then a slow drip and eventually the water stops flowing altogether. Meanwhile, the pressure is increasing. Eventually, the pipe will either burst from the pressure, or we will allow God to reach in so we may flow out. Remember, the choice is ours!

Beautiful One, just believe!

Comments

[Karen]

This was a beautiful reminder...I needed this this today!

[Kelly]

This was inspiring. Trials develop perseverance leading to the fruit of the spirit. The hero's of the bible were true people of GodlyCharacter. Character comes from Fruit of the Spirit and Fruit can only come through trials and enduring suffering.
Loved this post