7-18-2016

      Good Morning All!!      

     1 Peter 3:12a; “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer”.

    The pressure is on.  Have you ever watched an athlete perform under pressure?  Maybe the field goal kicker when his team is behind by 2 points with: 02 seconds left in the game?  Or how about the guy/gal trying to make two free throws with the same: 02 seconds?  Everybody is watching; everybody sees.  If you have never been in a situation like this, there is no way to explain the pressure that you feel.  You can feel every hair on your arm begin to rise; you hear every drop of sweat fall to the floor; you feel each heartbeat in your temple.  It is an adrenaline rush like nothing else. 

    One thing that is for sure is that we all feel some sort of pressure in our life.  It might be because of some job related issue.  It may be because it isn’t raining enough.  It may be that you are approaching retirement and you don’t know what you will do.  It may be the coldness in a family relationship or it may be health related.  We all face some sort of pressure in our life; it takes away our sleep, it takes away our comfort; it takes away our contentment. 

    Pressure is a two-edged sword.  On the one side it sharpens your awareness to your surroundings.  To the athlete, this means to focus on his training and practice.  On the other hand it can cause to cave under the weight of the event.  Sweaty palms and shallow breathing can kick in.  This is always the balance for the athlete and for us as well.

    When you begin to experience this pressure or stress in your life, you can become aware of what you are experiencing.  Sleeplessness, restlessness, depressed or any other negative emotion should trigger your awareness.  Yet instead of focusing on your own skill or talent; we need to look to God.  God is watching and fully aware of what we are experiencing.  He knows that we will cave to the pressure if left on our own.  God’s eyes are watching us all the time and he listens to our prayers.  When we experience these stresses or pressure. We need to turn to our rock and that is Jesus.

    We will always battle stress; that is part and parcel to a broken, sin-filled world.  But we don’t have to battle it all alone.  God offers to comfort us.  He uses His Word and His sacraments and he uses His church.  He uses his church to be the flesh and blood touch for us as we go through the troubles and travails of life.  We will face them just not alone.  We really don’t have to battle the weight of fear or loneliness or sadness or worry by our self; Jesus has already won those battles and offers us his grace and comfort fort this life.

Gracious Lord, as we battle with the stress of everyday life; we do not face it alone.  Give us the wisdom to see our struggles and to trust in you to give us the strength to stand up in your grace.  We ask that you especially see those who are struggling mightily and feel as though they are going to cave.  Bless them with your Spirit of peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret