Is pressure ever a positive force in our lives?

1 Samuel 13:9So he [Saul] demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.

2 Chronicles 32:31When ambassadors arrived from Babylon to ask about the remarkable events that had taken place in the land, God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart.

Proverbs 24:10If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.

Luke 4:1-2Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

Romans 5:3-4We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

James 1:2-4When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Pressure that comes from testing can develop our strength of character. The question is not whether we will have pressure in our lives, but what will we do with pressure when it comes? Just like academic testing, the purpose is not to cause failure but to demonstrate advancement in learning. If we deal with pressure in our own strength, we may be quickly and easily overcome. If we bring God into the picture, his wisdom will show us how to come through the pressure stronger and more joyful.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Hebrews 3:7, 13, 15That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, . . . You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. . . . Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”

Hebrews 4:7So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

The urgency of God’s pressure in our lives can be positive. God presses us to make decisions about him while the time is right and about doing his work at the right time. To respond to his life-giving pressure has eternal benefits. To ignore it will lead to eternal disaster.

1 Peter 1:17Remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”

Matthew 12:36“I [Jesus] tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.”

The pressure of impending death and the coming judgment day can encourage us to right living today. A casual attitude toward God’s judgment may cause us to become careless about sin today.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Ecclesiastes 12:11The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.

The pressure to learn can be a positive aspect of home life and daily living, especially when it involves learning Scripture, which brings wisdom and life-affirming practices.

Judges 10:7-10So the Lord burned with anger against Israel, and he turned them over to the Philistines and the Ammonites, who began to oppress them that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites east of the Jordan River in the land of the Amorites (that is, in Gilead). The Ammonites also crossed to the west side of the Jordan and attacked Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. The Israelites were in great distress. Finally, they cried out to the Lord for help, saying, “We have sinned against you because we have abandoned you as our God and have served the images of Baal.”

Although we probably don’t welcome painful pressure from ungodly people or the adversity they can bring, these challenges can have great benefit in our lives if they turn us back to God.