Grace in Galatians (Part 212) – How Grace Changed The Way I Handle Pressure

https://youtu.be/9Y8uzOPtLAw?si=N0drGlnT1boPievo

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

We are closing out our Grace in Galatians series with a handful of final messages on how grace changed everything in me. So far, I have told you how grace changed the way I see God, the way I see myself, and the way I receive. Today, I want to tell you about the fourth great change. Grace changed the way I handle pressure.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

1 Corinthians 10:13 ERV“The only temptations you have are the same temptations all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can bear. But when you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape that temptation. Then you will be able to bear it.”

Supporting scriptures:

Psalm 55:22 TPT“So here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 AMPC“But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness.”

Zechariah 4:6 ERV“‘You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord All-Powerful.”

Matthew 25:15 ERV“He decided how much each servant would be able to care for. The man gave one servant five bags of money, another servant two bags, and a third servant one bag. Then he left.”

1 Corinthians 15:10 TPT“But God’s amazing grace has made me who I am! And his grace to me was not fruitless. In fact, I worked harder than all the rest, yet not in my own strength but God’s, for his empowering grace is poured out upon me.”

Setting the Stage:

Before I understood grace, I dealt with pressure very differently. Every outcome rested on me. If something did not work out, it was my fault. Maybe I did not have enough faith. Maybe I did not pray long enough. Maybe I did not fast enough. And when I was in the middle of a trial, I carried the pressure of figuring out what I needed to DO to fix it. I was a believer, and yes, I prayed and tried to live by faith, but honestly, a lot of the pressure was on me. I was the one putting the pressure on myself because that was my mindset. 

Then I got a revelation of God’s grace, and it changed the way I handle pressure forever. I stopped carrying weight God never asked me to carry, and I started seeing every challenge through a completely different set of eyes. Let me show you what grace showed me.

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. I Used To Carry Pressure God Never Gave Me.

Performance-based religion has simple math, and the math is brutal: everything depends on you. When my prayers were not answered, I blamed myself. When the breakthrough did not come, I went looking for the deficiency in me. Did I believe enough? Did I pray enough? Did I fast enough? I lived under the crushing weight of being my own source. But here is what grace taught me. God never assigned me that weight. Psalm 55:22 says, “Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you.” The weight was never supposed to be mine.

How this applies to you:

— Religion put the weight on me, but grace put the weight on Jesus.

— I want you to picture a believer lying awake at 2 am, endlessly running through a checklist in his mind. Did I pray long enough? Did I say the right confessions? Is this delay my fault? That believer is not exercising faith. He is carrying pressure God never gave him. I know, because I was that man for a long time.

— Zechariah 4:6 ERV says, “You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power, but by my Spirit.” The outcome was never riding on your strength. It is riding on His Spirit. My spiritual father, Pastor Tony Brazelton, reminds us all the time that God is the one who controls the outcome. 

— When the answer is delayed, the old you asks, “What did I do wrong?” The grace-filled you asks, “Father, what are You doing, and how do I flow with it?” One question produces condemnation. The other produces peace.

— The pressure to perform died the day I discovered the performance was never mine.

— If it is God’s will, then it is God’s bill. He carries the providing part. You carry the believing part.

— Walk into today with the weight off your shoulders. Cast your cares at His feet, because measureless grace is waiting to strengthen you.

— You were never designed to live with that type of pressure. The sad reality is that many Christians are. Please don’t let this be you. 

2. God Will Never Let Me Face Something I Cannot Handle.

The first scripture that retrained the way I handle pressure was 1 Corinthians 10:13. Most people read that verse and focus on themselves, on their ability to bear it. But did you catch where the promise is anchored? Paul says, “But you can trust GOD. HE will not let you be tempted more than you can bear.” The guarantee does not rest on your strength. It rests on His faithfulness. That means before any trial ever reached you, a faithful God measured it, weighed it, and signed off on it. Nothing you are facing right now slipped past Him.

How this applies to you:

— God Himself is monitoring your load. He is personally committed to your capacity.

— If God allowed it, then God already measured it, and He knows you have the grace for it.

— I want you to picture a spotter in the gym. A good spotter lets you strain under the bar because the strain is what builds the muscle, but he will never let the bar crush you. That is what God’s faithfulness does with your trials. 

— It is true that our life is a grand sum total of our decisions and actions. It is true that we are going to reap what we sow. It is also true that God will stand by while things are building us, but he will step in if something is going to break us. 

— Whatever you are facing is “common to man.” The enemy wants you to believe your situation is unprecedented, that nobody has ever survived what you are walking through. That is a lie. Others have faced it, and by the grace of God, others have overcome it. So will you.

— The same verse promises a way to escape. God never seals you into a trial. Your state is not your fate. Every fire He allows comes with an exit He already built in. Your job is not to panic. Your job is to embrace the grace to get through it and to look for the door to get out of it.

— Stop measuring the pressure against your strength. Measure it against His faithfulness. He is the One who promised you could bear it, so, embrace His grace in order to do so. 

3. If I Am Facing It, Then God Trusts Me With It.

Here is the revelation that flipped pressure on its head for me. If God will not allow me to face anything beyond my ability, then the fact that I am facing it is evidence of something powerful. If I am facing it, then I can take it. If I am facing it, then God trusts me with it. If I am facing it, then I have the grace for it. That revelation changed my whole posture. I stopped saying, “Woe is me,” and I started saying, “Whoa, it’s me! Look at what God trusts me with!” 

How this applies to you:

— Matthew 25:15 TPT says the master entrusted the gold to his servants, “each according to his ability to manage.” God hands out assignments according to your ability to manage them. He never gives a five-thousand-coin assignment to a one-thousand-coin man. So if the assignment is heavy, it is because Heaven rated your capacity high. I can testify to this!

— I spent 25 years in the Army, and I can tell you how commanders think. When a mission is critical, you do not hand it to just anybody. You hand it to the Soldier you trust. The hard mission is not an insult. It is a vote of confidence. God operates the same way.

— Stop asking, “Why me?” Start declaring, “Look at what God trusts me with!“

— Luke 12:48 TPT says, “Where someone has been given much, much will be required. Where someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected of him.” Most people read that verse and feel pressure. I read it and feel honored. The requirement is the receipt. If much is required of you, it is because much was given to you. That means you have the grace for it!

— “Woe is me” focuses on the size of the problem. “Whoa, it’s me” focuses on the amount of grace. Same situation, two completely different perspectives. One drains your faith, and the other feeds it.

— The next time pressure knocks on your door, do not shrink back. Square your shoulders and declare, “I can take it, God trusts me with it, and I have the grace for it!” Philippians 4:13 AMPC says, “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me.” That is not a motivational quote. That is your reality, by the grace of God.

4. The Grace On My Life Is Greater Today Than It Was Ten Years Ago.

Here is the part that will set you free. Grace is not static. Our key verse for this whole year says, “Continue to GROW in the grace… of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” That means God can trust me with something today that would have destroyed me 10 years ago, because there is a greater level of grace and anointing on my life now. The pressure I am carrying today would have crushed the earlier version of me. But God does not give today’s assignments to yesterday’s grace. As the assignments grew, the grace grew with them. And the same is true for you.

How this applies to you:

— 2 Peter 3:18 GNT says, “Continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” Grace has levels, and you are not stuck at the level where you started. You are growing.

— What would have crushed the old you is no match for the grace on the current you.

— 1 Corinthians 15:10 TPT says, “But God’s amazing grace has made me who I am!… I worked harder than all the rest, yet not in my own strength but God’s, for his empowering grace is poured out upon me.” Paul carried enormous pressure, but he carried it in God’s strength, not his own. That is the secret to handling anything.

— Bigger pressure is often evidence of more grace, because God enlarges the anointing before He enlarges the assignment.

— In 2 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul was dealing with a thorn in the flesh, and he asked the Lord three times to take it away. Think about what Paul was really asking for. He was asking for less challenge. But instead of giving Paul less challenge, God gave him more grace. He said, “My grace… is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]” (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMPC). God did not remove the pressure. He supplied more power. Sometimes the answer to your prayer is not a smaller battle. It is more grace. Whatever today holds, the grace for it is already on your life. It’s already done!

— Let me make this practical. Isabella and I lead a business that serves federal clients, and that alone comes with deadlines, proposals, payroll, and people counting on us. There are over 20 families relying on the income that comes through our business. At the same time, we run a ministry. We have almost 20 employees in the Dominican Republic, so once again, there’s another set of families that are relying on the income there. I write Today’s Word five days a week, we teach, we preach, and we serve in churches and on church boards. Add to that the other boards we serve on, the leaders we mentor, and all the people and projects connected to us. And last but not least, consider the fact that we’re raising children, maintaining a marriage, and still dating each other. The earlier version of us could not have carried this. Honestly, the current version of us cannot carry it either, not in our own strength. The difference is not that life got easier. Life actually got heavier. The difference is that the grace got greater. 

— God grew the grace ON US before He grew the assignment He gave TO US, and He will do the same for you.

— Walk into today knowing the pressure you are under is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that you have grown, that God trusts you, and that greater grace is flowing. Handle every challenge from that place. This is #TheGraceLife.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that the pressure to perform is off my life!

I cast every care at Your feet, and Your measureless grace strengthens me!

You control the outcome, so the weight is not on me!

You will never let me face something I cannot handle!

If I am facing it, then I can take it!

If I am facing it, then You trust me with it!

If I am facing it, then I have the grace for it!

I will not say, “Woe is me.” I declare, “Whoa, it’s me!”

I do not need a smaller battle. I have a bigger grace!

The grace on my life is greater than ever, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!