Pulpit Notes: Reacting Under Pressure

Growing Through Adversity

We can’t know the depth of our character until we are put to the test. How easy it is to be righteous and proud when everything is going great. But how will we react when the pressure is on? How will we respond when things do not go exactly as we would like them to go, or when others point with ease to our shortcomings?

I suppose it is really a matter of character. God desires a witness from disciples of Jesus Christ that is patient and certain even in the face of adversity. God’s desire is not necessarily to keep us from pain and frustration, but to give them meaning.

God’s desire is that we grow through adversity, that our character be strengthened and, when necessary, be renewed. I doubt there are many of us who are not tested every day in some manner or another. But we need not look at adversity and frustration as things merely to overcome, because, in reality, the trials we face are helping us to “become.” They help us to become stronger, more confident, more effective disciples of Jesus Christ.

If you are facing frustration or pain, know that you have hope: hope that you can share with others in a world that often seems bent on taking away our true hope in Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”  (Romans 5:1-4)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Conrad

Reverend Dr. Conrad C. Sharps
Senior Pastor