[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0518":3},"MAY 18\r\nI was crushed ... so much so that I despaired even of life, but\r\nthat was to make me rely not on myself, but on the God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1.8, 9).\r\nPressed out of measure and pressed to all length; Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;\r\nPressed in the body and pressed in the soul, Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.\r\nPressure by foes, and a pressure from friends. Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.\r\nPressed into knowing no helper but God; Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.  Pressed into liberty where nothing clings; Pressed into faith for impossible things.\r\nPressed into living a life in the Lord,\r\nPressed into living a Christ-life outpoured.\r\nThe pressure of hard places makes us value fife. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new\r\nbeginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the\r\ntrials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.\r\nThere is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory\r\nor a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of\r\nthose who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and\r\n\r\nknows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, \"Death worketh in you.\"\r\nTrials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves\r\nthe piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across\r\nthe sea in the face of the winds and waves. --A. B. Simpson.",1783499793034]