When you are squeezed, what comes out?

There is More to Lemonade Than Just Lemons

Pressure … comes from all sides.  Home, work, friends, family … pressure.  Good things happen and bad things happen.  Sometimes the bad outweighs the good.   Why do some people have it easy  while others seem to never catch a break? Every time you pick up a paper, turn on your computer or answer the phone you seem to hear nothing but heartache.  After a while you could really get depressed.

The bumper sticker reads, “Life, it happens”.  Someone you love is going to suffer an unjust circumstance.  Something is going to happen that is just not fair.  It happens to your children, your husband … a friend.   That someone could be you.  It may be something small, but like a splinter in the finger it hurts.  It could be something huge that threatens to take you under.  Pressure, it comes from all sides.  Why?  

The pressure of the world is sin.  People get angry over the consequences of sin, especially when they suffer because someone else sinned.  Who is to blame?   People sin because they are sinners, they are not sinners because of sin. People choose to sin.  Bad choices have consequences … SIN has consequences.  We all make bad choices, we all choose to sin.  We are all sinners.

               Romans 3:10 (NLT) “As the Scriptures say,    “No one is righteous — not even one. “

Squeeze a sinner = SIN  ?  

So what do you do? 

• Cry
• Hide
• Throw in the towel
  
• Run away
• Give up
  
• All of the above

Yes it is a cliché, “Life hands you lemons, make lemonade” or, “squeeze some carbon, get a diamond.”  Tired of hearing that right?  Today you, or someone you know, will be pressured by life.  The first impulse (because you are a sinner and sinners sin) is ????   You are on the spot and must make a decision not to sin and/or help someone else not to sin.  Worry is a sin.  Blaming God is a sin.  He did not create sin or sin’s consequences, but for the time being He is allowing the devil to run the world (because man CHOSE sin).    Christ died for those sins and that sinful nature.  Claim that victory and do not believe the devil’s lies.  Just remember,  God is in control, He is still on the throne, He loves you and He cares for you.  TRUST Him.  Turn it over to Him.

• PRAY first
• Read His word
• Act on His leading
• Fellowship/talk with other Christians
• ENCOURAGE other Christians

Ask God for wisdom today and TRUST Him for the rest.  Trust = FAITH.  A living faith accomplishes in our life what God wants us to have.   A living faith walks on water.  Matthew 14: 22-32