Have you experienced pressure lately from your circumstances?  Maybe pressure from the job, relationships, finances?  Well, I can raise both hands and both feet to say I have!  What started out as “feeling the squeeze” grew more intense each day this week, to feeling like I couldn’t take any more pressure.  I began to hear “persevere” in my spirit.  The thought came to me that we can persevere under pressure.  I walked in my home on a Thursday afternoon and turned to lock the door behind me.  As I turned back around and took 1 step, the Holy Spirit said “No.”  I stopped in my tracks immediately, without taking another step, and asked “what” because I needed to hear what He had to say.  The Holy Spirit said to me, “You may feel the pressure but you don’t have to be under it.”  With that in mind, let me share some thoughts with you on persevering OVER pressure.

Many are facing great pressures and some days the pressures of life are a little greater than other days.  Some days the pressure can cause the squeeze to hurt. Some days you may feel like you’re in a vice & can’t take any more pressure.  Let me encourage you to keep your eyes on Jesus and stay focused on Him!  Isaiah 26:3 in the Amplified Bible says, “You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character],
Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].”  Staying focused isn’t always an easy task, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can!

To persevere means to persist in anything undertaken; to maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.  It also carries the meaning to sustain or uphold.

Can you imagine for a moment how Joseph must have felt?  We read in the Genesis 27 where Joseph is a young man tending to the flock with his brothers and brings a bad report about them to their father.  We know from the scriptures that Jacob loved Joseph more.  His brothers knew this and for that, they hated him!  Joseph had a dream and shared his dream with his brothers and they hated him even more.  Some of you may feel like you can’t rely on family, but you have the promise that God will stick closer than a brother.  You’re never alone!  Jesus is just as close as the mention of His Name!  There may be obstacles in your way, there may be people jealous over you but people’s opinions of you don’t matter!  People didn’t call you to your destiny, God did!  You have to persevere OVER those things to obtain Victory!  Joseph went from the pit to palace because He persevered through every plot against him so that he could obtain His promise!

Your promises may not come without persecution, rejection, or abandonment!  But the promises of God are there for us to take hold of and cling to as we believe for the fulfilment of them.

Another example that I want to share from the Word is in Matthew chapter 8 when Jesus seen the crowd around Him, He gave the command to cross to the other side.  He laid down in the boat and went to sleep (Matthew 8:24).  Verse 25 (in the Amplified Bible) says, “And they went and awakened Him, saying, Lord, rescue and preserve us! We are perishing!”  The Word, Himself, was sleeping in the midst of the storm and everyone else thought they were going to die.  Verse 26 says, “And He said to them, Why are you timid and afraid, O you of little faith?  Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great and wonderful calm (a perfect peaceableness).”  Pressure from the storms of life can sometimes cause fear to rise up in us.  The pressure we are feeling may not be so much coming from the circumstances that we are facing, but from what is going on within us.  Battles are fought in our mind every day.  When we begin to feel the battle is too much and we want to give up, we must choose to resist the negative thoughts and choose to persevere over the pressures.  Sometimes it’s not WHAT we are going through but HOW we are going through it!  The disciples were feeling the pressure of the storm and began to fear; and Jesus, who was sleeping, was filled with confidence in His Father! The disciples were reacting out of their flesh while Jesus was resting in who He is!  We can be confident in knowing that God is well able to perform His Word and that He’s got our back!

II Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  We have been given the authority over the enemy!  It is time to know who we are in Christ and walk in that authority! We don’t have to give into fear and we don’t have to give into the pressure of our circumstances!  We have the power within us to triumph over them!

Perseverance is vital to growing in your faith, and God wants His people to persevere no matter what happens, so we have to learn how to overcome obstacles, difficulties, fears, trials, and tribulation to experience victory in Christ.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (AMP) says “Trust in and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].”

It is true that circumstances can weigh so heavy on the heart and mind.  But we have to remember that we don’t have to carry the weight of them.  1 Peter 5:7 in the Amplified Bible says, “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” 

Sometimes, pressure can be so great that anxiety tries to attach itself.  Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.”  Another version says “be anxious for nothing.”  Sometimes fear and anxiety can cause us to play out the “what if” scenarios in our head and we become anxious over “NOTHING” because we are all worked up over something that hasn’t happened and may never happen!  #persevere

There is a difference in being concerned and being anxious.  The Holy Spirit asked me a few years ago why I worry about thing that I cannot change.  That brought great freedom to me.  Once in a while He has to remind me of that.  You can experience the same situation but the way you deal with it determines if it is a genuine concern or a needless anxiety.  We can react out of our flesh to the pressure in a way that brings anxiety and things become overwhelming; or we can respond by the Spirit and persevere over the pressure and cast that care on the Lord.  Romans 8:31 says “What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be [successful] against us?”  He tells us in verse 37 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].”

Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us and walk with us each day; to be our help in the time of trouble.  John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.”   The Holy Spirit can be your relief valve!  A relief valve is a type of valve used to control or limit the pressure in a system or vessel which can build up for a process upset, an instrument or equipment failure.  The pressures of life don’t have to break us down!  The Holy Spirit can relieve that pressure if you will allow Him to.  Does that mean the circumstances change immediately?  Not always!  The problem may still exists, but you don’t have to live under the pressure of it.  You can persevere under pressure!

Diamonds are made out of tremendous heat and great pressure.  I found where Geologists believe that diamonds are produced using heat to 2200 degrees & 725,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. Something so precious and so beautiful is created out of such heat and pressure.  You may have to go through some pressure and some fire, but God brings beauty out of ashes.

James 1:12 (AMP)  “Blessed [happy, spiritually prosperous, favored by God] is the man who is steadfast under trial and perseveres when tempted; for when he has passed the test and been approved, he will receive the [victor’s] crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

John 14:27 (AMP) “Peace I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.]”

“God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome.  What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them.” -CS Lewis