The other morning whilst I was making breakfast, I hauled out some eggs and began to crack them, one by one.  My amusement came to an end when, upon attempting to crack a seemingly perfect egg, its shell cracked ever so slightly, revealing a soft, off-coloured casing which emitted a terribly undesirable smell.  I prodded at it and realised that things were not as they seemed!

To my (and my husband’s!) relief, the story has a happy ending.  The egg was kept away from the others, and was promptly disposed of.  I had almost burst open a toxically rotten egg, which would have otherwise ruined the spectacular morning meal of bacon and eggs.

It’s not always easy to tell what’s inside, until our outer “shells” get cracked open.

It’s during the trials that we – and those around us - really discover what we’re made of.  Our outward appearance gets prodded at and chipped away by our circumstances, and the artificial exterior begins to fracture.

Suddenly we become acutely aware of our idiosyncrasies, and we’re faced with the choice of taking responsibility of growing in our development areas and confessing our sinfulness to the Lord.

Jesus was reprimanding the Pharisees when he told them, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Mt 12:34)   In fact, he called them a brood of vipers, as he told them that no good could come from their lips, because they were evil on the inside.

St Paul tells us that, through the struggles he encountered in ministry, although he was “hard pressed on every side”, he was “not crushed” (2 Cor 4:8).  He tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit to build him up on the inside!  The Spirit’s power is available to every one of us through Jesus, so that we may also accomplish great things, despite the challenges and afflictions we will face.

When the pressure is on and I get squeezed from all sides, I’d love to tell you I never crack.  But, instead of responding in faith with an overcoming spirit, the truth is, I sometimes emit great anxiety and start to doubt my God-given abilities.  The Lord is teaching me that the more I surrender these areas to God, the more I allow the Spirit to come in, to be my pillar of strength and my shelter in the storm.

John the Baptist declared, “Christ must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).  As we fill ourselves with more of God’s presence, it is the character of Jesus that will overflow in troubled times.