Pressure Cooker

Pressure Cooker dan skognes leadership development trainer coach motivational speaker blogger

Do you ever feel like the pressures of life are so great that you are about to explode?  That is not a good thing, by the way. How you handle pressure says a lot about you and your faith.

Not trying to put a guilt trip on anyone here, but if you are living every day stressed out, then I have to ask, “Where is your faith?” Do you say you trust God, then continue to worry, fret, gripe, complain, become angry, or get bitter?  Where is God when you need Him???  Why isn’t he answering your prayers???  Why ME???

OK, if that is you, calm down.  Breathe deeply…exhale.  In with the good…..out with the bad.  Sometimes life can be pretty crazy, and I don’t care how strong you are, or how strong your faith is, sometimes we all get knocked to our knees by life.  I don’t know about you, but it seems that when one thing goes wrong, several other things go wrong at the same time!  Just when you feel like you are able to stand up from the first punch, you get knocked to your knees by something else, and then another.  The question becomes, are you going to stay down?

I heard a testimony from Tony Dungee recently.  Talk about a guy that understands disappointments and setbacks.  Tony said, “How you respond to failure, how you respond to disappointment…says a lot more about you than how you respond to success.” He consistently took his teams to the playoffs, but the Superbowl championship kept alluding him. Things did not turn out the way he thought they would.  Despite taking Tampa to the playoffs 4 consecutive years, he got fired because he did not win the BIG one. It was one of the biggest disappointments in his life because he felt that the Lord had brought him to Tampa.  It would have been very easy to give up on God or at the very least…get mad at Him.

He did not know what he was going to do when he got fired.  He did not know if he was even going to stay in football at that point.  That is when Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts called and told Tony that they were making a change at head coach and Tony was the man for the job.  The rest is history.  It was not written as Tony would have scripted it, but only as God could do it. Tony never gave up.  He came to grips that if he NEVER won the BIG one, he would be OK with that, but he would never give up on trying to win it.

When the Colts won the Superbowl, at the request of the players they honored God by having a team prayer after the game….just as they had done after every game.  What a testimony to walking in faith, trusting God, thanking God, and seeing the blessings of God as a result.

If you are struggling in your faith because of the setbacks of life, don’t give up.

  • Don’t give up on God.  His timing is perfect. He IS there and He DOES care. Trust Him!
  • Don’t give up on yourself.  God has a purpose for your life.  He will help you attain that purpose.  Just don’t quit. Focus on doing His will today for your life.  Take a step of faith, and don’t worry about tomorrow.

It is easy to get discouraged, particularly when you have struggled for years in some area.  Take a lesson from Tony Dungee.  God will see you through.  You just have to believe in Him and stay the course.  Follow Him.  Put Him first in all you do, and He will direct your paths. Winning is worth pursuing, but living a life that is free, purpose driven, and Christ centered is the biggest win we can pursue. When all is said and done, we are not defined by what we do for a living, but who we are inside.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

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