Embracing the Pressures of Life—Part 1
People tend to respond to the pressures of life like they might respond to a home invasion. Some fight, others flee.
Fighting pressure often looks like blowing up or clamming up in anger at the people or situations that are putting pressure on you. It could be your children, your spouse, your boss, the traffic, etc. Whatever the source, when pressure is applied you kick against it as some sort of intrusion on the wonderful, pressure-less day you had planned for yourself.
To flee pressure is to try and escape from it using a myriad of different methods.
Maybe it’s food, or sports, or entertainment. Maybe it’s an over indulgence in a hobby or binge-watching TV or movies. It could be video games or social media. Maybe it’s pornography. Whatever the escape route, running from pressure is as sinful and counter-productive as fighting against it.
So, what should our response be to the pressures of life? That’s where James chapter one comes in. Much like Charles Spurgeon’s popular quote about kissing the waves that throw us against the Rock of Ages, the first chapter of James teaches us to kiss the wave of pressure and embrace it as a friend rather than an enemy.
By my count, James gives at least seven reasons we should embrace pressure rather than oppose it.
1. Pressure is Under God’s Sovereign Control (1:1)
To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings (James 1:1).
When James wrote this brief letter, he was writing to a group of people under immense pressure. They had been forced out of house and home and scattered across the Greco-Roman world—all on account of their Christian convictions. Imagine the pressure.
Yet, like the dispersion of days gone by—when the “twelve tribes” of Israel were exiled and scattered due to Assyrian and Babylonian victories—God was in charge (2 Kings 17:7–20; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 36:19).¹ None of the pressure being brought on these ancient Christians was outside the scope of God’s sovereign purpose. None of it was rogue or accidental. All of it was being orchestrated according to the counsel of God’s perfect will (Ephesians 1:11). So too is every pressure you will ever face.
2. Pressure is Purposeful (1:2–4)
…the testing of your faith produces endurance (James 1:3).
Not only was the scattering of these ancient Christians under God’s control, it was also being subjugated by God to accomplish good in their lives. Like a furnace, God was using the fires of pressure to refine these followers of Christ. That’s the Divine methodology. Like fire to the crucible, God applies the pressures of life bringing the impurities of our faith to the surface so that He can sweep them away. The result? A purer, more steadfast faith. Without the pressures of life, this would never happen.
Do you want to be the kind of Christian who can hold out under the face of difficulty and bear up under pressure? Then you need God to lovingly bring the fires of pressure to refine you. You need to feel the pressure of parenting. The pressure of life in a difficult marriage. You need to feel the sting of being mocked by your co-workers when you stand for Christ. These are the pressures that God uses to shape us into His kind of people—people who are “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4).
3. Pressure Produces Dependence upon God (1:5)
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:5).
Not only is pressure effective in producing endurance, but it also makes us aware of what is always true but so quickly forgotten: apart from God we can do nothing (John 15:5). Without pressure we might continue living under the delusion that we have the wisdom and insight necessary to carry out our responsibilities and to live faithfully before God.
But in God’s kindness pressure comes along, and like a splash of cold water, it re-awakens us to reality. If we’re to do any spiritual good to anyone in this fallen world, then we desperately need the wisdom of God. And when we come to God with that level of dependence and desperation, He delights to give His wisdom “generously and without reproach.” Without pressure, though, we would have never been thrown on God to seek His wisdom.
4. Pressure Strengthens Our Faith (1:6–8)
…the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind (James 1:6).
The pressure of life is also used by God to strengthen our faith. Without a strong faith we are like the “surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” We lack stability and steadfastness. But as our faith is “tested” (1:3), it is refined and strengthened. We cease being “double-minded” people in an internal debate about the generosity and patience of God (1:5) and we start taking Him at His word. As we do that in faith, over and again, our faith is strengthened and we become solid as Gibraltar. But without the painful gift of pressure, our faith would never grow.
¹ Of course, the dispersion of Israel in the OT was a judgment for their rebellion (Deuteronomy 30:1–3). The dispersion of these Christians was due to their personal fidelity to Christ. The reason behind each dispersion was different but it was the same God who had decreed it all for good (Isaiah 46:10; Romans 8:28).
Note: This is Part 1 of the series. Part 2 to follow soon.