Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
4 25 2025
The Blessing Is in the Squeeze
There is so much happening in my family’s life right now. Maybe you’re experiencing something similar. I hope the word the Lord gave me brings you the same encouragement and faith it brought to me.
“What is it, my child, that is burdening you?
Even in the middle of the mess, I AM your refuge and your rock.
Did you not know? The blessing is in the squeeze.
I have saved you from the worst of it.
I am that single set of footprints in the sand, carrying you.
Stop struggling in My arms—I have you.
I’ve protected you.
Offer up the sacrifice of praise—what costs you something.
This will be okay. Trust Me.
I’m holding you up.
Stop wrestling with the angel I’ve sent to walk beside you.
I love you. I’ve got you.
I’ve got your situation.
Learn to trust Me—and you will find rest for your soul.
For My grace is sufficient.”
What is it that’s squeezing you right now? This month, this year?
Is it financial stress? Relational wounds? Physical pain? Spiritual drought?
What’s got its teeth in you like a pit bull in a fight for survival?
What is stealing your joy…your peace…your faith?
If you’re like me, maybe you’ve handed it over to God—and then taken it right back again.
But here’s what He’s showing me:
He meets us in the squeeze.
The Squeeze of the Heart
Our spiritual heart isn’t so different from our physical one.
Can you make your heart beat on your own?
Can you keep it healthy by your own strength?
I had triple bypass surgery on September 13th, 2023. A skilled surgeon opened my chest, harvested arteries from my arm and leg, and grafted them to bypass blockages. He removed what was cutting off the life-flow. He took out what was threatening to stop my heart—and my life.
It took a skilled hand to do that. It also takes the loving hands
of our Heavenly Father to do spiritual heart surgery on us.
God uses the squeeze—financial, emotional, relational, spiritual—to press out the toxins, compromises, and cultural thinking that steal the moral fiber of our families and our faith. He does it not to harm us but to make us whole.
What Comes Out When You’re Squeezed?
Whatever is inside.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:15–20 that we know people by their fruit. The same is true for us. What comes out when we’re under pressure? Anger? Bitterness? Anxiety? Or the fruit of the Spirit?
God doesn’t allow pressure to punish us. He allows it to purify us. To bring us back.
To teach us to lean on Him.
Paul felt daily pressure from his concern for the churches—and that pressure drove him to unceasing prayer (2 Corinthians 11:28, 1 Thessalonians 5:17). It’s in the squeeze that faith is tested and proven (Hebrews 11:6).
The Press Is for Purity
Proverbs 25:4–5 tells us to remove the dross from silver, so the silversmith has material fit for a king. God does the same with us. The squeeze heats us up, and the impurities rise to the surface—so He can remove them and leave behind something pure, something holy.
Like the potter with the clay, God doesn’t crush us—He shapes us.
A Personal Squeeze
My kind and lovely wife, Dyan, had four surgeries last year. She was unable to bear any weight on her right leg for six weeks, and the recovery took over 6 months.
During this same time, my daughter Danielle was thrown from a horse and broke her left ankle and tore her MCL and ACL in her other knee, she couldn’t stand on either leg.
I ask the Lord: “What are you trying to teach us?” I pray for their protection daily. And yet…here we were.
This squeeze isn’t a gentle hug. It’s more like wringing out a sponge. But that’s what removes the toxins and the filth. That’s what makes room for something new.
Don’t Miss the Moment
During COVID, many of us talked about how we’d grow—personally, spiritually, and relationally. But as time passed, for many, little changed.
There’s a danger that the same thing could happen in our current squeeze.
We can grumble. We can resist.
Or—we can seek. We can pray. We can humble ourselves. We can ask God to reveal what He wants us to learn, who He wants us to become.
Like a sponge, we become absorbent when we’re wrung out. Sometimes it’s not sin or filth that fills us—it’s staleness. God doesn’t want us to be lukewarm. He wants us to be transformed.
God’s sanctification isn’t always pleasant, but it is always purposeful. And it can be joyful.
Joy in the Squeeze
Joy because the more He rinses us in His grace, the more we become like Him.
Not just Sunday-attenders.
Not just tearful when life breaks us.
But people who run to His refining fire.
Who welcome the discipline that shapes us into His image.
Hebrews 12:4–11 reminds us:
“Do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly…He disciplines those He loves…No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
So…what’s your squeeze today?
Whatever it is, know this:
The blessing is in it.
He is in it.
And He’s not letting go.
Let’s pray.
“Lord, we offer You our hearts in the middle of the squeeze. Remove what doesn’t belong. Teach us what you want us to learn. Purify us like silver. Shape us like clay. And help us to see that You are with us, even now. In Jesus’ name
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I have loved you Matt Henry
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