"The pressure of hard places makes us value life…" ~ A. B. Simson
II Corinthians 1:8-10 "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us"
"…Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, 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 trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them…
The man or woman who has suffered much…is very tender and gentle and know what suffering really means…Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward…" ~ A. B. Simpson
"Pressed into knowing no helper by God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things."
~Streams in the Desert
We can celebrate LIFE today because we faced DEATH's dark valley yesterday.
Let us not despair. We know the God that "doth deliver" and we believe that He will "yet deliver us" again!
Obtaining Mercy 