This quote teaches US a valuable lesson that is supported by scripture. While we may not like pressure, we have to honestly admit that it is when we are under pressure that we are focused and get things done.
Paul was a real doer and yet he explained how he was “pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” Later in this same letter, he described how his flesh had “no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fighting’s within were fears.”
Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, we are told that “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
Surely our Father is trying to teach us that life is no bed of roses and that we should accept as the norm the trials, troubles and chastening that come to every one He loves. We can all certainly agree that “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
The Lord told Ananias he would show Paul “how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Suffer he did. He later would look back and reflect on the suffering he had endured for the Lord. “In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep.”
In addition to all the personal suffering Paul endured, he described the problems he had with his brothers and sisters in the ecclesias. “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches” is the way he describes it. Paul accepted the truth of the concept that “no life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined” just as it takes confinement and pressure to drive a steam or gasoline engine.
For this reason, Paul surrendered his own will to God, just as did the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul exclaimed, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities , in persecution, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
God loved Paul, yet Paul had to suffer for the sake of God’s name. Paul knew that neither he, nor we, will ever be “tried beyond that which we are able to bear.” We are being prepared for bigger and better things.
Let us, then, adopt a right attitude to the personal problems we all face and to those we have within our ecclesias. Let us accept that none of these things happens without the knowledge of our Lord who walks in the midst of his ecclesias. Therefore let us “glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One