The Pressures of Life - Let Them Draw You to Him!

"It doesn't matter, really, how great the pressure is, it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord - then the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast." J.Hudson Taylor 

The Edges of His Ways
I love this photo...It just awes me. I feel it beacons me to walk to the heights - to seek Him who is the Rock of Ages.
via Pinterest

Life is full of pressures of all kinds. It is so easy for me to let those pressures pull me down and suck me away from seeking His face - from seeking Him first in my life. I came across this quote by J. Hudson Taylor and it brought this issue home to me today. Not surprisingly, I've been under a variety of pressures lately, as most people seem to be these days I notice. Life is often just so, so busy. My pressures have been mostly from uni studies, responsibilities, and anxieties about the future and so on. It is so easy to let the cares of life and the lures of the world distract us from Him and His Word. The world is always intent on distracting us from seeking God. It lures us with the love the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Other distractions could be 'good' things and not necessarily 'worldly', but it nonetheless distracts us from seeking Him first in our lives. I've noticed that I get distracted more easily when I'm totally caught up in the pressures of everyday and when I don't even give a moment's pause to be quiet in His Presence. As a new Semester begins, my prayer is that I let the pressures of life draw me closer to Him, instead of sucking my faith away. That is why it is important to take time everyday to just be quiet in His Presence and let Him feed our souls. May He give me the strength and grace to cling to Him and His Word and so bring lasting fruit in my life to His glory. I want my life and heart to be like the good soil where the Seed of God's Word takes root and produces fruit. May it be our prayer always.

"Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." 

Matthew 13:22 (NKJV)

"Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." 

Mark 4:18-19 (NKJV)

"Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity." 

Luke 8:14 (NKJV)