There is pressure that shapes you into someone better

I was recently talking to someone who works on a huge “press.”  It shapes sheets of steel by bending them at a certain angle.

The press weighs many tons.  

It seems that the Lord operates a “press.”  Pressure is circumstances.  

He wants to see you shaped into something great, but it is a process.  He bends, shapes, then creates.

In Genesis, we read of numerous characters who came under “pressure.”  

Their reactions can instruct us in how God may be dealing with us.

See if any of these pressures are where you are right now:

1. The pressure of patience. 

Abraham’s wife became impatient to have a child.  She prevailed upon Abraham to take her servant, Hagar, as a wife.  She wanted a baby desperately.

God allowed Abraham to wait for 24 years to receive his own son through his wife, Sarah (she was 90!).

Have you broken under the pressure of waiting?

2.  The pressure of deception.

Jacob waited seven years to marry Rachel.  Instead, his father-in-law substituted her sister Leah!  He had to work seven MORE years for Rachel.

It hurts when someone breaks a promise.  They lie, twist, cheat, and deceive.

Ten times Laban cheated Jacob.  Finally, however, he ended up with a greater herd than Laban and thirteen beautiful children.

God keeps the books.

3.  The pressure of betrayal.

Joseph’s brothers envied his favor with their father.  They sold him into slavery in Egypt, interrupting his entire life.

Envy and jealousy are the roots of betrayal.  Their action of selling Joseph actually fulfilled God’s plan of rescuing Jacob and all his family from the world famine.

We’ve all been betrayed.  Joseph’s reaction of forgiveness and purity passed every test before his sudden PROMOTION.

4.  The pressure of false accusation.

Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife.  She had him falsely thrown into prison to suffer in a horrible pit where the king's prisoners were kept.

He was totally innocent!

This pressure proved Joseph’s character again.  He passed the test of many years in prison and demonstrated that God could give him favor in any circumstances he found himself in.

5.  The pressure of being forgotten.

Joseph interpreted two dreams for two of Pharaoh’s former employees.  Both interpretations came to pass.  One lived, and one died.

The one who lived was asked to mention Joseph to Pharaoh to rescue him.  He “forgot.”

Two years later, he “remembered.”  

Has anyone ever owed you a favor, made a promise, and “forgotten?”

It’s pressure.  It eats away at you.  Get over it.  It’s bending you.  You won’t break; you will be formed into a great vessel for the Master’s use.

Maybe you are in some other pressure.  Yield to the Master craftsman.  He has great things in mind for you.  Like Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, the pressure of life will weave you into the fabric of God’s purposes.

Pressure bends the hardest steel.  “The press is the hand of God.”