Faith Filled Friday

Good Morning my Coffee Hour Friends. Pull up a seat and grab up a cup of coffee or tea.  Let’s talk about the pressings of life and how it affects you and me. 

Have you ever felt pressed beyond your means?  A pressing you feel is about to tear the seams of your very soul.

 I've felt that pressing: when finances were dwindling and there were bills still needing to be paid, or when my loving and devoted husband who was facing a pressure of working until he felt he could work no more. 

Let’s take a look at Jesus as he was pressed in the Garden of Getestemane. 

Matthew 26:36-38: Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, "Sit here while I go over there to pray." He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."

Jesus' soul crushed to death to the point of grief.

Has your soul ever been crushed to death to the point of grief?

I know mine has. 

Walk with me through a bit of what the Lord gave me on pressing. 

The Garden of Gestemene is a place of agony, a place of pressing. Lord, as you wept and pleaded to have the cup taken from thee, yet you cried "Abba, Your will, not mine."

Jesus as you press us and we cry out for you to lighten the load, may we cry out as you did, Abba, Your will not mine, though the pressing, discouragement, worry, anxiousness, fear, and doubt all creep in and our sight grows dims. 
“Our sight grows dim”...we can't manage this load on our own and we don't have to. When grief gets us down, we forget where our hope comes from. Our grief consumes us and we forget we simply need to pray. Let's take a look at this verse which addresses this very principle: Jesus, being consumed with grief, went to pray. He knew he needed help for He couldn't face this pressing on his own. 

Matthew26:38: “Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and He said, ‘Sit here while I go over there to pray.’”

Jesus went through the pressing and to the cross for you and me. Say these words with me:

May we seek your face, Jesus, and may our eyes be opened to see the will of the cross emerge. Jesus, we lay our life down and present our sins to you. Revive our souls, that as we rise we'd be cleansed and refreshed, made whole and anew. As our sight is restored and our feet are set upon the Rock, Lord may we always remember where our help comes from.  We will stand refined and new singing praises to our All Mighty God for you carried us through. 

If today you are being pressed, meet Jesus at the foot of the cross and lay it all down at His feet. Let it all out. Let your heart and soul cry out all of the grief that is gripping you. Oh, that you would know that He bends down and listens and when He needs to, He carries you through, for He loves each one of us with an Everlasting Love.

Ashley