Feeling Pressure

Psalms 118:5-6

From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large lace. The Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? NASB

When Pam delivered the twins, she almost died.  She was healthy through the delivery of the C-section.  The boys were healthy.  But later that night she was rushed into intensive care because of high blood pressure and her inability to receive enough oxygen.  That morning she was giving birth to our babies…that night next to her bed someone coded.

It took nearly a week to find the cause of all of the pressure.  We literally had people praying all over the world as one of her cousins had a prayer request for her spoken on the 700 Club.  The prayer and medical world converged in the diagnosis of Miyo-carditis. Understand I am not a physician, but this is a condition when the lining of the heart is inflamed and begins filling up with fluid.  In my mind that should just stretch and get bigger.  But in reality it puts the pressure inward…on the heart.  Thus the heart responds to the pressure by beating faster, even though the body is at rest.  Pam was feeling as if she was running a sprint that would not end.  They were able to drain the fluid out of that lining with a needle…30 minutes later she was free from the pressure and began her healing.

Pressure in life seems to always compress.  It makes you feel as if you have fewer and fewer choices.  Some can literally feel the pressure of limited decisions throughout the body.  Heaviness on the chest, pressure on membranes in the head, and a fallen countenance are the weight that people carry every day.  Maybe that describes how you are feeling.

Knowing to call out to the Lord and humbling yourself to do it are two different things.  Out of your distress or in the middle of it, call out to the Lord.  Your voice of crying to him is the relief valve of the pressure.  The old pressure cookers on the stove would begin to whistle when the heat and pressure reached a certain point.  The heat was still going to the pot, but the pressure was being released.  Call unto the Lord and tell him your difficulty.

Verse 6 brings comfort in knowing that God is on your side.  You are not calling to someone who cares little for you.  Rather, GOD is on your side.  He is for you.  He knows about the pressure and He has a solution for you.

When you call out to God…options become available.  He enlarges your perspective.  You may still have to walk through the fire, or go through the painful experience that is in front of you.  But When God is Waling With You…everything is different.  Just ask Daniel in the lions den, or Shadrach in the fiery furnace, or Moses in the Red Sea, or Joseph in the pit, or Paul in prison or Jesus on the Cross.  Connecting with God relieves the pressure and gives you options to make the right decisions.  Don’t ever compromise from the direction that the Lord has already given.   He makes a way that is spacious in the middle of your desert.

Go to Him in prayer today

Jesus is waiting for your plea

Though you’re overwhelmed in every way

His truth will set you FREE