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Water In The Pipe....

by Shannon Heiden
10/30/2009 / Devotionals

Beautiful One, did you know that with enough pressure applied to your life, you can break?
Even the most anointed, faith filled, powerful people can break if enough pressure is applied to their lives.

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? Were they so powerfully awesome, sinless, and favored by God? 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 that when we encounter trying times, we can forget that there is nothing new under the sun? Our trials may be new to us, but the truth is; someone somewhere has walked through the same thing either before, or after us. Which of us remembers in the midst of trouble, that our trials are our teachers? They are meant to define our faith, not destroy it.

When we examine the lives of great men and women, the very things that made them great- was not their successes. But the persevering through the enormous odds that they each faced in getting there. They never gave up!

Beautiful One, let me remind you that there will be seasons in life, where you will feel great pressure. There will be times of turmoil and confusion, where nothing makes sense, including God.

During these times, everything is shaken. Our faith, value's and our principles. Everything that we thought we had a handle on, could in a blink of an eye, seem instantaneously out of our grasp.

Think of some of the people God used. Take Elijah for instance. God did amazing, powerful things through him. But the mighty prophet still dealt with depression and fear. You can find him laying under a juniper tree wanting to give up and die.

Then there was Abraham. The one God said was righteous because of his faith. And yet, he was a liar. Abraham feared man more than God by telling a king Sara was his sister, not his wife. Abraham also tried to bring Gods promise to pass through his wife's plans by fathering a child with another woman.

Who can forget Peter? The handpicked Apostle who was Gods choice to be the first Pastor of the Christian Church. Peter walked closely with the Lord Jesus for three and half years, and yet, he cursed and still had a temper. His temper usually 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.

Take a good look at Rahab? Many did, she was a prostitute. What heavenly good could this woman's earthly behavior ever done to have made her way into the Bibles Hall of Faith?

None of it. In fact, none of Elijah's, Peter's or Rahabs behavior under pressure totally pleased God.

But their faith in who God was and what He could do, did.

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 holier than most, or because they didn't experience some dysfunction. He used them in spite of them, and the pressures they each faced.

The good news is; He still does.

If you really think about it, God will never find anyone to use who has it all together. 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 and breaking point in our lives and use it for his glory.

He can use a donkey; giving it a voice to warn and speak commonsense to us. He can take fear, the kind that puts a man into hiding. He can meet that fearful man, call him by his true name- Gideon man of valor. And in one hour God turns the faint and fearful into the mighty and memorable.

How about Samson? He lost all of his strength due to the deceptions of Delilah and yet God gave him back the strength of angels. Somewhere he'll take a shepherd boy and topple a giant. God will take the pressures of life and use them to push us through the pipe of adversity.

We will burst forth like never before, and God will receive all the glory and praise that is due him.

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 and who never met Jesus face to face, 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, then the water stops flowing altogether. Meanwhile the pressure is building up, and increasing.

Eventually, the pipe will either burst from the pressure, or we will allow our God to skillfully reach in and pull out the muck, so that we may flow forward.

And through it all, the choice remains to be ours....

Beautiful One, just believe!

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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