Tight Squeezes

I have been in some spots that were so tight that I thought I would have to remove a coat of paint to squeeze through.

Jonah was in a squeeze that he couldn’t wriggle out of when his sins caught up with him in the middle of a violent storm. Peter was in a squeeze that forced him to cuss or confess the relationship that he had with Jesus Christ. The horrified widow in the Old Testament was in a squirm when the bill collector came knocking and she could not pay her bills.

Getting out of jams is a part of our job description as a human being. Eleanor Roosevelt had a unique insight concerning solving or facing these tight spots and suggested, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

This was Paul’s philosophy. In Philippians 4:13 (The Message) he declared, “What ever I have, where ever I am, I can make it though anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

Andrae Crouch understood this and put it into the words of a beautiful song which never ceases to inspire and bless me. When you are in a squeeze remember this.

“I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions
For tomorrow, There’ve been times I didn’t know right
From wrong: but in every situation God gave blessed
Consolation, that my trials come to only make me strong.

I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for
The valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought
Me through; for if I’d never had a problem I wouldn’t
Know that He could solve them, I’d never know
What faith in God could do.

Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in
Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God; through it all,
Through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His word.”

The Psalmist proclaimed it enthusiastically. “Yea, thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” (Psalms 23:4) Death is a tight squeeze. It is so tight that there is only room for 2…you and God. Just two and no more, but God will be there to see that you make it through safely.

The key word is “through”. It means to go in one side and come out the other. You will make it through. God will prove it. He may need to push me through or pull me through my tight squeezes in life but He will see to it that I get through.

Jesus is given a rather odd name in Hebrews 6:20 but having great significance. He is hailed as our FORERUNNER. The Greek word for FORERUNNER is prodromoi which is used to designate scouts, the advance guard, the reconnaissance corps of the army. The essence of a FORERUNNER is one who goes first in order to make it safe and possible for others to follow.

He has already gone through the tight squeezes and gives us the assurance that we can and will make it if we but trust Him. No pit is so deep, no debt so big, no burden so heavy, no bondage so strong, no pain so intolerable but what He can pull us out. I don’t know what it was but the Psalmist discovered that God is a God of tight squeezes when he wrote, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…” (Psalms 40:1-2) I obviously don’t know what pit you are in or how tight things are for you as you are reading this or how you got there, but I do know God has a way out.

I will be the first to confess that I don’t always understand God’s ways and the way he works, but I do know:

• God’s ways are good and brings us satisfaction…
• His ways are right and brings us direction…
• His ways are perfect and bring us freedom…
• His ways are pure and brings us forgiveness…
• His ways are sure and brings us confidence…
• His ways are best and brings us victory.

It’s not too late to seek His way in squeezing through your tight spot, but it will require some specific exercise. Try this exercise plan.

Exercise patience

Patience is not doing nothing. It is doing what you can, the best you can, in everyway you can and expecting the favor and blessings of God to overtake you. Patience is counting on God to come through when you know you can’t. Take heed from Edmund Burke who said, “Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

Exercise self control

Self control is managing my time and efforts in such a way as to prevent me from adding insult to injury. I invariably create jams for myself when I am not acting to some degree in self control. Some of the best advice that we could ever take is to practice James 1:19 (The Message). “Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with you ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the read.” Self control will keep you out of many jams.

Exercise discretion

Discretion is making good decisions. When I am in a tight squeeze, my judgment can go into a mental deep freeze. Edmund Hillary suggested that it is not mountains that we need to conquer but ourselves. Exercising good discretion will monitor our morals, corral our conceit, curtail our temptations, crush our greed, curb our craving for power and control the spirit of criticism that that causes damages that are difficult to repair.

Exercise determination

When you are in a squeeze, get tough. David McNally declared: “We can learn to soar only in direct proportion to our determination to rise above the doubt and transcend the limitations.” God gives us wings to soar above and beyond our jams, but Satan gives us leg irons to hold us down and keep us from making it through. Let the squeeze produce wings to fly. Determination will make it happen.

Exercise dependence upon God

Allow me to sum it all up in the words of St. Augustine. “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” You may not see a way out…know a way out or expect to get out of the tight spot you are in, but depend upon God to pull you out anyway. He has a plan to do it and the power to bring it to pass.

Working Out Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob