GOD’S STORY Part 11 Ignoring Pressure!
I ask myself — and pray to the LORD — what does He urge me to discuss this week?
Pressure! In fact, Ignoring Pressure!
Here at Preparing the Bride, I’m telling GOD’S STORY. Presumptuous?! Not when simply looking at scripture, because scripture is the unfolding of God’s story to us who read it.
How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? We learn GOD’s Story. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked.
Matthew 6:25-34 reads as follows,
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Do Not Worry!
Clearly, GOD does not want us to feel pressure from the world. And yet, we His children can so easily fall into a trap of worry, anxiety, hard effort without the lead of Holy Spirit.
“He who waits upon the LORD shall renew his strength.” From Proverbs 3 and other scriptures like this, we receive wisdom and guidance. Likewise, walking with the Spirit of GOD, in sync step-by-step, we can eliminate the sense of pressure than oppresses us and stresses us, which imposes on our own peace and on the influence we offer to others.
In GOD’s STORY, I believe He is saying to us: receive my peace which passes all understanding, and take each day and each incident one by one. In this is rest, peace, strength and joy.
“I have been misrepresented” I hear Him say. This is not a quote from scripture but rather, as I sit to receive from Him, it is what I record from Him… “I have been misrepresented” means He has not determined that pressure should be a part of our lives, although a religious spirit would suggest we are meant to “measure up!” to a false sense of behaviour and attitude as represented by religion rather than GOD. As we begin to absorb this, we will discover His real intent for us. Yes, we are meant to work… labour is a cost to the Fall of Adam. But through working by the “sweat of our brow” we receive joy and pleasure, dignity and self respect from our own industry… not pressure.
Pressure is what comes of man seeking to create a legacy or a promotion or a name for himself. Pressure is what comes from worry over the family’s security or our own well being. Pressure arises through a lack of faith in the sovereign protection of GOD.
He wants us, I believe to live ignoring pressure from wherever it may come.
Does GOD feel pressure?
Have you ever wondered what GOD thinks of our demanding prayers, our prayers of declaration? We are taught to pray according to scripture, to declare the power of GOD, that “No weapon formed against [us] will prosper and every tongue that rises against [us] in judgment will be condemned” as His scriptures say and we include in our prayers.
But how does GOD receive these prayers? Does GOD feel pressure from us?
I wonder how GOD receives our prayers
I believe the more we pray gently and in humility, the clearer we hear Him and the clearer we speak to Him. We are called to pray the desires of our heart. Sometimes we will be vehement, at other times quiet and demure. The more we “be still” before we begin, the more our hearts become quiet and can sense Holy Spirit’s prompt and the direction He leads us to pray. I don’t personally believe that making demands is of the LORD, though I recognise GOD can connect with us wherever we might be.
Personally, I pray to be sincere, committed and even firm, but not to demand our LORD to do as we bid.
This does not cut across or deny the power of spiritual warfare but I do think when we war against the spirits of the air, we are not demanding to GOD but rather firm in our conviction to speak His will into the spiritual realm. In order to do that, surely we need first to be quiet and still, to hear the direction of the LORD and to follow it in prayer. Then we pray with earnest expectation rather than demand. And we receive blessing, knowing He has given us a gift. In this there is no pressure from either side.
Hallelujah! We are blessed.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
