Sunday morning my pastor gave an analogy of this world being much like a pressure cooker and you know me…my brain was like, “Oooh, that’d be a cool drawing!” He also gave us Deuteronomy 8:1-20 and encouraged us to read it this week. As I read through those twenty verses, I couldn’t help but picture so many mamas and women I know…maybe not personally, but through social media or work that often times feel “pressurized”. They are living under the constant pressure of the demands that this world has on us…family, work, friends, church, and the list could go on for an eternity. I see it in their Facebook posts and Instagram stories…and believe it or not, my heart hurts for them.
Maybe you’re that woman. The one that is about to explode. The one that is a ticking, time-bomb of emotions. I can remember my grandmother (my dad’s mom) cooking with a pressure cooker when I was younger. Her pinto beans from that gigantic pot were heavenly…some of the best I’ve ever eaten! Pair it with her cornbread and you might just think you’ve entered the pearly gates…but I can hear her now saying, “Don’t get too close because that pot can blow up!”…especially if you don’t know what you are doing when it comes to cooking with one. Well, in life…we don’t really know what we are doing, now do we? We pretend…we try and keep up with those around us and compare our lives to everyone else’s, only to most days feel like what comes off our stove isn’t worth eating. We rely too much on our own ability and that ends up blowing up in our face. We are constantly stirring and shaking our pots, when God is saying, “Simmer down, I got this.”
In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is reminding the Israelites of all that God had done for them. I especially love verses 7-9…”For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams of water, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills, a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.”
You might feel like you are in the pressure cooker right now…about to bust, but I know one thing is for sure, God will release the steam! Just allow Him to soak into your being and you will feel the pressure quickly leave! You can’t do it alone…remember how you got to where you are….it wasn’t on your own doing, but by your Heavenly Father. He has a purpose for you…and it isn’t living under constant pressure from the world! The answer to your problems aren’t found in this world, but in His Word! That’s where the pressure is released and you can take off the lid to your problems in prayer and trust that he will lead you out of your own wilderness.
Trust Him tonight. He can speak peace over the pressure and remove you from the burner that is this ever-changing world. The Lord hasn’t changed since Moses’ day…He’ll do the same for you tonight as He did in the desert for His people many years ago.
