Pressure

As the Super Bowl looms closer, the players are continually asked how they handle pressure. One player said it's like putting a two by four on the floor and walking on it. This is easily done. If you lose your balance and "fall", you only have two inches to fall. Now, suspend that same board 300 feet in the air and walk across it. If you lose your balance now, it means death. It should not matter at all because it is the same two by four. But your mind begins to put fear into you and plays with your thoughts. You become very tentative.

NFL players are some of the most scrutinized athletes. Not only is every play watch by some 70,000 fans, but at least 6 TV cameras capture almost every angle of each play as well as dozens of professional photographers. Then, consider how many millions of fans around the world that watch the games. If you screw up, you are attacked by the media and fans alike for disappointing them. These players deal with this every week.

However, despite this attention, the players for the most part handle the scrutiny quite well. Why? Because they are trained to. They work on their profession nearly 12 months out of the year and are constantly around cameras, coaches, and fans.

Your fear and pressure that you feel each day can be handled the same way. The more times you deal with it, the less it becomes an issue. It becomes a routine occurrence. The more difficult and trying the pressure is, the stronger you become. Just as steel is hardened and made stronger with more heat and the process repeated, the same is true of your will.

How well do you handle the pressures of your job, your relationships, your financial matters, your emotional dilemmas, your spiritual well-being? Pressure hardens and strengthens.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. I Corinthians 10:11-13 (NIV)

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Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com