Skip to main content

Under Pressure

Our daughter and her husband are in the throes of moving half-way around the world over the next few weeks. Things are crazy for them as you might imagine. But there's more than meets the eye on this move. It's a military move for one. Then there's the fact that her husband, an Air Force captain is stationed in South Korea at the present time. She's in Arizona trying to coordinate this massive transition while waiting for paperwork, selling household goods, vehicles, and transporting their dog to their new duty station. It's a stressful time, full of uncertainty and frustration. Anyone who's ever moved even down the street knows it's not a walk in the park. And if you've been through a military move, it probably sounds familiar, and you have a story or two about that experience.

Life is full of pressures or trials, and they are temporary, but not at all pleasant to endure. We know what the ultimate goal is, but the road is usually difficult and full of the unknown, which is very scary. Whether it's a
move, challenges at work, serious illness, or loss of a job, the pressure rises and we find ourselves stressed out and angry. Joshua was a man who was under a lot of pressure. He knew God's plan for Israel was to conquer Canaan and settle there. It was the Promised Land. He had an army with only a few battles under its belt, battle-tested enemies, lots of women, children, and livestock to care for. God gave him very specific orders to conquer the land before him. It would seem that he had an impossible task to complete. But God knew the pressure that Joshua was under. He gave him a very specific list of promises and instructions to encourage the new leader of Israel. You'll find all of these in Joshua 1.





    • Be strong and courageous
    • I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—
    • I will not fail you or abandon you.
    • Be strong and very courageous.
    • Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
    • This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
      Here's what we can do when the pressures of life are crushing us. Stand with Joshua and:

      1. Be strong and courageous.
      2. Because God will not fail us or abandon us.
      3. Stay in the Word, think about it, and obey it because it's got the right instructions to get us through.
      4. Be strong and courageous.
      5. Because He is with us wherever we go.



      Because you are my helper,
      I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 63:7

      Labels

      Comments

      Dave said…
      Military moves = Piece of cake. They do almost all of it for you!
      October 24, 2013
      Post a Comment

      Popular posts from this blog

      The Castile Knapper

      It's always fun to have family members who have a bit of notoriety because of interesting pursuits. My husband's cousin, Ken Wallace is one of those.  Ken is an artist who works in stone as a flintknapper. Flintknapping is the ancient art of shaping tools and weapons from pieces of stone. Knapping was part of the survival skill set of Native Americans. Arrowheads, knives, hatchets, and more were shaped from raw pieces of flint or chert.  Ken knapping at the Wallace Reunion Ken became interested in this process back in 1985. One of his favorite pastimes was searching fields for arrowheads, both of which are pretty plentiful in Western New York. Freshly plowed ground in rural areas often yields many different types of arrowheads since the Iroquois were the original residents of what are now corn fields and cow pastures. Fascinated with how the Iroquois made their weapons and tools, Ken started to try and recreate them. He says a lot of trial and error were involved in the...
      1 comment
      Read more

      Victim of Circumstances?

       The article below has been getting a lot of hits lately, and I thought it may be time to repost it. A couple of weeks ago, I took the picture below. I thought it pretty much sums up our life journey. We never know what's around the corner for us.  Circumstances change in seconds some days. Whether the circumstances of life are good or bad, we're fond of blaming them for how we behave and think. Here are a few of the well-used excuses:  "I'm a victim of circumstances.""The situation is impossible." "The circumstances are beyond my control." "Under the circumstances"...fill in the blank. Funny how principles, self-control, and  positive thinking can go out the window when we're "under the circumstances."  And lest you think the author is above blaming circumstances, she is not. I've used most of the excuses above, whether spoken or unspoken.  An imprisoned and wrongly accused Jewish C...
      1 comment
      Read more

      Smores Anyone?

      We lived in the same house for 25 years just outside of our small hometown of Castile. It was a good little neighborhood and was mostly quiet except for the traffic on Route 39. When the signs of spring arrived, it was also time to pile up tree branches, and clean out the garage or the shed of burnable miscellany. Each year there seemed to be a contest between my husband and the next door neighbor to assemble a burn pile of enormous proportions.  Day after day I watched their piles grow until tepee-shaped woodpiles were just right to be torched. There was an art to the arrangement so that it would be totally consumed in a short amount of time. It was sort of like a bonfire on steroids. Now the neighbor enjoyed the element of surprise on the neighborhood and waited for quiet Saturday afternoons to begin his incendiary activity. KABOOM! You would have thought we were under attack by enemy forces. Then there was a rush of wind and the crackling of the k...
      2 comments
      Read more