PRESSURE FREE

Matthew 14:23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone.

We all experience the stress and pressure of this life. Jesus also experienced great stress and pressure. He had pressure from the religious leaders who were always questioning who He was.  They would question His motives by asking Him why He healed on the Sabbath, why He ate with publicans and sinners, and where did He get His authority? He also had pressure from His earthly family. The Bible says that His kinsmen thought He was out of His mind. In the gospel of John, the Word says they didn't believe in Him. At one point, Mary and Jesus' brothers came to get Him to take Him away, so Jesus definitely dealt with pressure. Then, the devil came to put the pressure on like you and I have never experienced. We call it the temptation of the Christ. So, Jesus definitely understands what we are going through because He was tempted and put under stress just as we all are. He also knows how to get us out of the pressures of this life; so, we need to follow His example.

What did Jesus do when pressure came to His life? He often went away to pray. Matthew 14:23 says, "And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone!" You definitely need some alone time with God because as you cast your cares upon Him and fellowship with Him, stress and pressure will leave. During the temptation of Jesus, He met the pressure head on with the Word of God, and that’s true for us too. Never give the devil, or temptation, the last word. Talk back with the Word of God. For every pressure the devil brought to Jesus, Jesus pushed back with the Word of God. You and I must do the same thing to live stress free.

The greatest pressure Jesus ever had in His life was right before He went to the cross. All of mankind's freedom was depending on Him, the Son of God. How did He deal with it? He went to the garden. He tried to get His friends to help, but they really didn’t help at all. Jesus was under such pressure that He sweat great drops of blood. The only way He could get the pressure off was to talk to the Father and submit His will to the Father's will. It worked because of what Hebrews 12:2 says, “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus went from anguish to joy. How did He do it? Through submission to the plan of God, through prayer, through casting it upon the Father, by trusting the Father, and by doing the Word. These are things we can all do. So, let's follow Jesus' example of how to get rid of the pressure and stress in our lives.