Scripture: Psalm 23:1 (ESV)

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Have you ever noticed how much energy we spend trying to make sure we have everything we need?

“In their hearts humans plan their course,

but the LORD establishes their steps.”

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

It’s amazing how quickly a day can change.

One phone call. One unexpected bill. One conversation that doesn’t go the way you thought it would.

You woke up with a plan. Now you’re trying to figure out what happened to it.

I have a confession. I am terrible at waiting.

I check the oven light every ninety seconds. I refresh my email like something will change. When I'm waiting on a big answer, I rehearse every possible outcome in my head, as if enough preparation could speed things up. It never does.

Then there's Psalm 46:10 (NLT): "Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world."

There’s something interesting about Proverbs 11.

It doesn’t spend much time telling us what to say we believe. Instead, it gets right to the question of how we actually live.

Because character is funny that way.

We can talk about integrity. We can post about honesty. We can tell people how important our faith is. But eventually, life puts us in situations where nobody may ever know what we chose.

That’s where character shows up.

“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
1 John 4:4 KJV

Life has a way of applying pressure.

Sometimes it comes through circumstances we never expected. Sometimes it comes through people. Sometimes it is financial, relational, physical, or professional. And sometimes several pressures seem to arrive at the same time.

The interesting thing about pressure is that most of it comes from outside of us.