The pursuit of fitness is popular today as people work out at the gym to strengthen their bodies. There are so many pressures we encounter in our lives, and we feel that making our bodies stronger will help. Physical fitness and self-defence training may well enable us to protect ourselves but will do little to withstand emotional pressures. We need spiritual strengthening within.

I remember that Science Room experiment where the teacher puts water in a kerosene tin and brings it to the boil over a Bunsen burner. Steam begins to gush out of the screw top opening. The teacher would then screw the lid back on, switch off the burner and we would wait to see what would happen. After a while the tin began to crumple as if by some invisible force. We learned that it was the outside pressure which was now greater than that inside the tin.

We can feel crushed by the circumstances we are experiencing, maybe sickness, maybe the loss of a loved one, or simply some life situation which seems to be overwhelming us. We need an equalizing pressure within, some inner power which will withstand those external forces. God’s provision is the Lord Jesus Christ.

At home my garden wheelbarrow tyre has a tendency to go flat, and I have to get out the hand pump to put air pressure back. Amazing the difference it makes! Sometimes I feel that lack of pressure within, that ‘flat tyre feeling’ where my Christian life is a struggle. At such times I remind myself to have faith in Jesus who gives power or if you like, increases my spiritual pressure level.

Ref. 1 John 4:4 NIV