Category: Adversity

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

Thomas Paine

Normal Vincent Peale used to say, “When God wants to send you a gift, he wraps it up in a problem.
The bigger the gift that God wants to send you, the bigger the problem he wraps it up in.”
Instead of concentrating on the problem, look for the gift. Wonderfully enough, you will always
find it. What’s more, sometimes the gift, or valuable lesson, can be of far greater value than the cost
of the problem itself. Sometimes, one lesson that you learn in dealing with a problem can be the key
to your long-term success. As Napoleon Hill wrote, “Within every problem or obstacle lays the seed
of an equal or greater opportunity or benefit. Your job is to find it.”

(Excerpt from No Excuses: The Power of Self Discipline by Brian Tracy)

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Often time pressure comes in our lives to reveal to us what is inside. It’s God’s tool that he uses to prove to us our capabilities as well as our areas for growth. He uses it as a catalyst to shake us from our complacency and move us to the next level in Him. As one pastor noted, “We are like tubes of toothpaste and the only way to get out what is inside is to squeeze us, but when we are filled with the right stuff, God’s word, the more pressure the enemy applies will result in God catapulting us further into our destiny.”

“A diamond is a chunk of coal that did really well under pressure.”
-Henry Kissinger –