Feeling the Pressure

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Good morning, and welcome to starting right with Danny Mac. I'm gonna be here five times a week to help you get a great five minutes. Start to your day. I'm gonna give you some encouragement in some hole from God's word. Because I really want you to know that you matter that you are important. You have a purpose. So I invited to subscribe to this podcast and join me here Money to Friday to help your day by starting right with Danny. What the balls rating was about how to live during difficult times. As you read through his letters, you can see how he was instructing the people to overcome those times with their newfound faith. And second Corinthians, Chapter four versus eight and nine. He says this were hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed in those two verses, he gives us four true's that we need to hang onto when we're going through difficult times. 1st 1 was we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed. We need to know that pressure around us is not going to defeat us. Another translation puts it this way. We catch it from every direction, but we don't let them squeeze the life out of us in fighting the virus around us. It's very easy to feel squeezed and to feel that the walls are closing in on you. There's almost a claustrophobic feeling that can start to overcome us, but we are assured that it cannot, and it will not crush us. It says that we're perplexed but not in despair. To be perplexed means that you are confused. You don't know what to do. You don't know how even sometimes to pray howto be able to begin to pray. Sheila Walsh has written a great book. It's called It's Okay not to Be Okay. In times like this, we need to be okay with not being okay. But we also need to know that God is okay with us not being okay. And he just wants us to come to him and trust him. He wants us to trust him, Maur, than what we trust what's happening around us. And when we trust in him. He has absolutely promised us that we will not be in despair even though we're confused with what's going on. Everything he says is that we are persecuted but not abandoned. We're gonna feel like we're all alone in the middle of this, particularly when we can't get out of our house. So we can't see our family and friends like we want to. But we are not abandoned. God is with us. The presence of God is with you, not always be with you. The Holy Spirit is in you right now. You are not alone. You do not need to feel the desperation of loneliness. The comfort of God is there for you. If you go to him and ask him for he's about to give to you what you need in the middle of what you're facing. We have times where we were able to get through and everything's going fine. But there are also times of extreme loneliness, extreme despair that can come over us. How and when is this all going to end? And we start to wonder about those things and those thoughts can take over us. But God says that he is our strength and that he wants to be with us. He wants us to trust him in the middle of this four thing. It tells us that were struck down but not destroyed. That means that we are gonna be able to take a hit and taking a hit won't destroy us. Mike Tyson once said, Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And if we live long enough, we're gonna take some hits and we're in the process of taking some hits right now, all around us, we're taking hits because almost everything that we do is different from the normal for us. And every time we come up against another change, it's another hit. Here's the opportunity for us in this right now. If we are able to hang onto God's truth, we can show the reality of God in our lives. To the people around us. Tim Keller says This. We need a theology of suffering if we're going to reach this generation. If Christians are truly the light of the world, when is the light most likely to be seen in the bright sun of midday or in the darkness of night? The answer is obvious and it's not is if we have to choose. We are the light of the world 24 hours a day. But our testimony, given in the midst of hardship and sorrow, will resonate more loudly because it comes at midnight. God is with us goddess surrounding us. God is protecting us. God is being good to us. We should let that truth shine from us to those around us and cause them to say, What have you got that you can get through this like that? And we can tell him it's the light and power of Jesus Christ. We are going to win. We are hang in there. Gang were in this together. God is for thank you for listening today. And I invited to join me again tomorrow and every week, day Monday to Friday as together. We look to make our days better by starting right with Danny Mac. Have a great day. God bless