April 20, 2020
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A cold is no big deal, unless it decides to expand its coverage from your nose to your ears. And even then it's no big deal unless you're coming down from 30,000 feet up in a commercial airliner. This is not a medical news bulletin - it's my personal testimony. I could feel a little something in my ears before I took off, but I didn't have any idea how the altitude ups and downs of my flight were going to totally block my ears and cause me some nasty pain on the way down. The poor lady next to me was telling me some of her heartaches and I kept yawning just to keep my head from exploding. And as my ears got more and more clogged, it was like somebody had turned down the volume knob on what she was saying. She must have thought I was a really great listener. Well, it was a painful afternoon, but the changing pressure in that plane let me know that I had a problem and it drove me to do what I usually try to avoid, go to the doctor. I'm glad I did - he really helped me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pressure, The Pain, and The Prescription."
Increased pressure actually showed me an infection I really needed to deal with. You know, pressure has a way of exposing a lot of problems that need attention. Maybe the words "increasing pressure" describe your "flight" right now, pressure that's causing some significant pain. It could be that the pressure and the pain is in your marriage or maybe your work. Or for you, the squeeze might be financial or it could be something in an important relationship, but the stress is building. And you don't like what the pressure is doing to you. And, like the pressure I experienced on that flight, there is pain. Could it be there's a purpose in what's happening to get you to the Doctor?
Our word for today from the Word of God; it's in Psalm 32:1 and following. The great Jewish King David was having a painful flight, and he was feeling the pressure. But it's getting him to face some things he might otherwise not have faced. These words from his personal diary start out with what he learned from this hurting time. He says, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."
Now it was the pain and pressure that got him to the point of spiritual and emotional freedom. Here is what he says, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand" - He's talking to God - "was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer."
Wait a minute! You know some of those feelings - like there's this heavy hand on you, extended times of sadness. There's a stress that's draining you, maybe even physical symptoms. My pain and my pressure on that flight exposed a deeper problem and it led me to healing. David's pain and pressure exposed his spiritual need and it led him to healing. You might be at that same threshold. Now David's had a happy ending, one which may be exactly where you will find your happy ending. He says, "Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' - and You forgave the guilt of my sin."
God sometimes actually lets the pressure build so we will finally deal with what is really wrong inside us - the sin that we've never taken care of. David went to the Soul Doctor and came away a man who was forgiven and clean. That could happen to you - that same liberation - if you'll finally let go of your pride and go to the Forgiving Place. It's that cross where Jesus loved you so much that He died for all the sins you've ever committed. When He said, "Father, forgive them" on that cross, He was forgiving you.
If you'll put your total trust in Jesus Christ to be your Savior from your sin, you will be clean. All this pressure and all this pain has been to let you know there's something wrong deep down inside, the deadly infection of sin that only Jesus can cure. This could be your time to finally be forgiven. Don't you want that? Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I hope you'll go to our website, because I've really set it up to help you be sure that you've begun a relationship with Jesus. It's called ANewStory.com. Would you go there?
In this most painful and stressful time, you are suddenly on the edge of the healing that your soul has always needed, because you are face-to-face with Dr. Jesus.