The Power of Being Stretched

Are you aware a rubber band cannot be used in its original state? Certain pressure must be exerted on the rubber to attain it’s maximum use. Using this simple illustration which is well known to all of us, it’s one way of letting you know in this life, there is a certain measure of pressure which we have to go through in life to help us maximize our potential.

Stretching, is one way which is very pivotal to anyone who is on a journey of becoming the best version of who God declared them to become before the foundations of the Earth. I will be real with you, some pressure we go through in life, is to stretch us into achieving certain goals in life, to be productive and to push us in reaching the peak of our destiny.

But someone might ask, why do I have to be stretched to produce maximum results?

• There are things we will not be taught by anybody but they can only be experienced through stretching to produce the best results in us and through us.Psalms 71:20-You have allowed me to suffer much hardship,   but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.

• There are life lessons that can only be learnt through some life challenges. We are made strong by the challenges we go through. Proverbs 24:10-If you fail under pressure,your strength is too small.

• To achieve more, to be able to go far and to be more productive, we have to go through some stretching in life.1 Corinthians 10:13-The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Challenges can act as catalysts to stretch us and to push us to live to our maximum potential and God can use different avenues to stretch us, He can use: –

• Friends

• Family members

• Enemies

• Challenges

• Assignments

God does not stretch us to break us but to make us realize how far we can go; how great our capacity can be enlarged and how great our potential is. You will never know what you can carry within unless you are stretched.

In our current state, some of us have very little capacity to handle what God wants to do through us and that’s why, He has to use different avenues to stretch us. You can be carrying Nations within you, huge conglomerate Business ideas, a great vision for your community and your nation but how can you be enlarged if you want your capacity to be in sponge form?

Fruitfulness is a product of our elasticity and here is the catch, if you are going through a business challenge, a marital challenge, a ministerial challenge or a work challenge, it’s an indicator that within you, you have a God kind solution in that area. There is so much that you carry within you beyond your own imaginations.

But we have to be aware when we refuse to be stretched, when we choose to be static in our decision making, in our conflict resolutions and the refusal to get out of our comfortable zones, we lack the strength, the sustainability and easily give up on reaching a breaking point. When people refuse to be stretched, they become ineffective, they lose focus and they automatically disqualify themselves from being used by God in Mighty ways.

We will never know how large our capacity is, until we are stretched. Be elastic and refuse to break. When you are going through a stretching season, that’s not the time to murmur, to get offended or to throw in the towel! That’s the time to generate the strength from within, it’s a time to accumulate revelational knowledge and to harness your faith in God and stand on His promises that they shall truly come to pass.

Let’s look at 2 Peter 1:3-11, By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. ⁴ And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

⁵ In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

¹⁰ So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. ¹¹ Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

From the above context of Scripture, God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness, so that we can participate in His divine nature. The more we are stretched, the more we expand and have more capacity to do more. It is not enough to just get born-again, there is more to this walk of salvation. God is expecting us to grow in faith, in goodness, in knowledge, in wisdom, in self -control, in perseverance and discipline. No matter how God loves us, we can’t get to certain levels in life without stretching.

I believe someone reading this article is going through so much pressure but I am here to encourage you, you are not alone. God has deposited within you what is required to build you up for the next level. Don’t give up on that marriage, don’t give up on that business, don’t give up on that ministry, don’t give up on that child and don’t give up on your assignment. Greatness is for people who are willing and able to go under pressure. Diamonds are made under pressure ,which only means, if you desire to be precious , you have to be willing to go under pressure.

While going through a stretching season, pray for God’s grace to stand and withstand. It’s not a season for anyone to say it’s a walk in the park but it is a season to build up your stamina. I pray you shall not break but you shall break through in the Name of Jesus.

Confession:- Dear Lord ,help me to learn my lesson from the challenges i am going through make me wiser to handle this situation and make me stronger to go through this situation victoriously.

Love ReinaBeaty.