When life presses you, God is not breaking you; He is transforming you. The crushing isn’t punishment but preparation, releasing the strength and purpose He placed inside you.
A winemaker once invited a visitor to walk through his vineyard.
Outside, everything felt calm. The rows were neat. The grapes hung heavy and full. Sunlight warmed the ground, and the air smelled sweet and clean.
It looked like peace.
Then they stepped inside the production room.
The visitor stopped short.
Grapes were crushed into pulp. Skins split open. Juice ran freely across the floor. Barrels were stained dark red. It felt violent, almost wrong.
He finally asked what anyone would ask: “Why does it look like everything is being ruined?”
The winemaker smiled. “Because grapes never become wine unless they’re crushed. The pressure releases what’s been hidden inside.”
The visitor nodded, seeing something he had missed before.
What looked like breaking was actually becoming.
You might feel squeezed right now.
Responsibilities piling up.
Expectations closing in.
Life pressing from angles you never planned for.
Pressure has a way of whispering lies: that something is wrong, that you failed, that you are falling apart.
But God often works differently than we expect.
Just like grapes are crushed to make wine, pressure does not destroy your purpose. It reveals it.
It draws out strength you did not know you had.
Faith you did not know you could carry.
Endurance that only grows when weight is added.
A calling that cannot surface without resistance.
The Apostle Paul understood this deeply. In 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 he wrote:
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
So breathe. Stay present. Trust the process you cannot yet see.
You are not breaking down.
You are breaking open.
