Under pressure

What should we do when we are under pressure in life? What should we do when things don´t go as we planned in life? It´s easy to become fearful and loose hope when the pressure of life hits us. Life is full of different kinds of pressure; relationships, career, finances or when things don´t go as we planned. This week I´m still in Scandinavia so I decided to listen to a Swedish sermon online. Pastor Josef Barkenbom gives us a few tips on what to do when we are under pressure in life.

1) Don´t be surprised when the pressures come in life.

The more you live life right the more people will come against you. In fact, if nobody is against you or you are experiencing no pressure at all in life you might not be doing very much with your life. Take the pressure against you as a sign that you are doing something right because following your passion or fighting for what is right never comes easy. When you are working towards something that is good and right there will always be people trying to hold you back.

2) Stay comitted to the right things in life and learn to be flexible with the right things in life.

Although it´s sometimes really difficult to accept changes in life it will become harder if we hang on to soemthing that we can´t control, something that we know deep inside that has to change. Many things in life change and if we can learn to be a little more flexible when things don´t go as we planned we will also find the strength we need to go on.

God on the other hand, will never change, and if we continue to hold on to his promises we can find new strength from him. When we remeber all the good things God has already done for us in life we will be able to trust that he will take care of us also this time.

3) Lift your eyes

When life is hard it´s very easy to fix our eyes on the now and forget the joy that God has promised us in the future. If we lift our eyes from our circumstances and focus more on the big picture and on God we can find the strength to get through a difficult season in life. Jesus himself was able to endure all the pain of the cross because his eyes were fixed on the future joy that would come, he knew that although the pain was very difficult is was temporary. Learning to forgive others that has come against us is also an important part of being able to move on towards a brighter future.