Hard-Pressed, But Not Crushed
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed;
we are perplexed, but not in despair.
2 Corinthians 4:8
When I was a child, I had an inflatable plastic punching dummy. It was about as tall as I was and had a smiling face painted on it. My challenge was to hit it hard enough to make it stay down. But no matter how hard I tried, it always bounced back up again. The secret? There was a lead weight in the bottom that always kept it upright. Sail-boats operate by the same principle. The lead weights in their keels provide the ballast to keep them balanced and upright in strong winds.
It is like that in the life of a believer in Christ, too. Our power to survive challenges resides not in us, but with God, who dwells within us. We are not exempt from the punches that life throws at us, nor from the storms that inevitably threaten our stability. But with full confidence in His power to sustain us, we can say with Paul, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9).
Join the many travellers through life who through deep waters of pain and suffering embrace with unshakable confidence the truth that God’s grace is sufficient and that in our weakness He is made strong (2 Cor 12:9). It will be the ballast to your soul.
Read
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Prayer
Dear God, thank You for making me new! May I be a neighbour to those who desperately need Your care in order to be transformed by You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Amen