Pastor Lindell Ballenger

Have you found that you don’t change easily? Many people change only under pressure. Not because they want to but because they must.

Nothing in human experience is a greater catalyst for change than pressure, usually the pressure of some sort of difficulty. Yet we ordinarily do all we can to avoid pressure situations. Non-pressured living has become almost a god in our world.

If you design a life free of pressures, you probably also will have a life of mediocrity.  Count on it: without pressure there is little change, and without change there can be no growth.

People seem to assume that conflict is inherently bad or that the ideal life would be one that is conflict free.  Anybody that is conflict free, I would suspect, is not experiencing growth. The important changes in us take place within the framework of struggle.

The Apostle James put it this way. “Is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete” (James 1:2-4 TLB)