2012-09-28T09:36:55-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com /feeds/topics/pressure/ http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/bankruptcy-makes-you-rich-6710 2012-09-28T09:36:55-05:00 Our safe, predictable, well resourced Christianity insulates us from really living by faith. And then God allows the bottom to drop out, just so He can hold you up. And you find out what He can do when there's none of you and it's all God. And then you can learn that He's enough. He fills up your empty account and in a paradox that only God could reveal to us. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/avoiding-the-backlash-thats-building-behind-you-6686 2012-08-27T14:50:27-05:00 Stop running from what you should be facing. You've got to face the pressure, face the storm, face the issue, and if need be, face the Lord. Trade in that false and temporary security we feel by trying to escape. Trade that for the real security of the peace of Almighty God. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hindrances/what-keeps-your-father-from-helping-6661 2012-08-06T09:56:02-05:00 Your Father is standing there ready to help as only He can, but you've got to release that bitterness that's making your burden so much heavier. Why carry that load too? Your Father wants to trade your bitterness for His energizing grace. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-personal-power/something-happens-when-you-have-to-speak-6498 2011-12-09T13:34:43-05:00 You may be in or you might be approaching a pressure situation where you feel inadequate to say what needs to be said. Well, Jesus said here, "Make up your mind not to worry about it." God wants to display His power by giving you words and wisdom that you don't even know you have. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/spiritual-termites-6463 2011-10-20T11:15:52-05:00 the defeat you're experiencing—it's not to bury you, it's to draw your attention to the sin you've consistently ignored. So exterminate the sin; do a little rebuilding, and you'll be stronger than ever. With the weakness inside corrected, you can be a winner again. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-mission/the-collapse-of-a-two-legged-bridge-6459 2011-10-13T09:22:49-05:00 Our greatest fear should be if that person I care about will be lost forever. Sometimes it's the pressure, the peer pressure that makes me start doing things that make them wonder if being a Christian is really anything that different. I'm confusing them. I'm keeping them from Jesus because I'm not a whole lot different from the people who don't know Him. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/squeezed-to-obey-6415 2011-08-12T09:38:09-05:00 Two thousand years ago the Gospel spread around the world by first breaking out of Jerusalem because some people were pushed and squeezed to do it, and right now He might be doing the same thing with you. If you're like my children or you're like the first century Jerusalem Christians, maybe you have to be squeezed to obey. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/the-brink-of-i-think-i-can-t-6322 2011-04-05T10:46:40-05:00 Draw deeply on His strength. Be honest about how desperate you are. And then proceed ahead as if God will get you to the top of the mountain. Because He will, if you are at the brink of "I think I can't." Because then, you're at the brink of God's miraculous enabling. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/only-one-choice-6137 2010-07-23T16:03:42-05:00 Life is so much less confusing when you've already decided your bottom line - "I will always do what's right...I will always do what God can honor." "Offer right sacrifices"...then, "trust in the Lord." Before you run each day's race, let God hand you His note that says, "He that honors Me I will honor" (1 Samuel 2:30). http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-personal-power/the-voices-and-the-choices-2716 2009-09-16T12:33:46-05:00 We've caved in to the pressure, didn't stand for what was right and sold out our Savior. We listened to a voice or voices other than Jesus. We can't have those moments of compromise back. But we can bring them to the Lord repentantly, and claim His forgiveness. And pledge to Him that His will be the voice we follow in our choices.