“When you are in the vise grip,” Devi once told me, “and you are being squeezed … like a lemon, let it produce sweet juice in you – sweet lemonade, refreshing to the taste. Do not let it make you bitter.”

I am being squeezed — as the Word calls it, “hard pressed.” Every moment is a choice to either let the vise grip grip me and squeeze out a bitter taste, or let God hold me steady in the clamps, knowing His hands hold the lever.

We all have this choice when we are being squeezed: to believe that He is transforming us to be more like Himself, that He is producing the character to match our calling; to trust that He will bring good from every hard thing.

From the vise grip can spurt anger, bitterness, and spite, because it is so darn uncomfortable, especially when we’ve been in it for a long time.

The only tool that rightens my mind when am I squeezed like this is the Word of God.

Paul writes, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” He doesn’t say bitterness and anger might be in you — he says, “They are in you, so let them be put away.”  Sometimes I wonder if He’s squeezing out the ugly so there’s more room for the beautiful. He goes on, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).

He precedes these verses with a warning: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…” Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander grieve God. Just as we grieve over these sins in our nation today, so God grieves over these in us — for only He sees the clamor that happens when no cameras are rolling – even the clamor that goes on in our minds.

On our wedding day, the videographer interviewed my grandfather, asking for advice.

“Be kind to one another,” the old man in the wheelchair said. 

What is pressing you? How are you squeezed? Remember that a vise grip is a tool in the hands of a carpenter, to hold you firmly and safely there, as He shapes you into a work of fine form.

I for one am being formed by the squeezing. It hurts, yes, and at times I’ve let it make me bitter. But bitterness has been the gall I’ve choked on till it made me spit it out, for how wretched is the taste of bitterness? 

The way to rid ourselves of bitterness is total forgiveness, as God has forgiven us. Instead of slander and wrath, we can choose thankfulness. Instead of causing clamor, we can choose the tenderhearted way, the kind way, the way sweet and refreshing as lemonade, quenching the thirst for grace in those around us.

Allow the vise grip to produce sweet juice in you. Allow the carpenter’s hands to mold you in such a way that you become all He intends you to be.

As Jesus hung on the Cross, bitter words could have spewed from His mouth. But instead, in the vise grip of His life, His heart poured words sweet to the taste. He was true to His identity as God’s Son by being tenderhearted even in the most painful moment of His life.

Above all, He entrusted the squeezing of Himself to the One whose Hand holds the lever, and trusted that this pressing would produce goodness for those He loved.

We may be squeezed tight and it may hurt bad, but we are not crushed (2 Cor 4:8). Let’s lift up our eyes to the hills of Golgotha, where the suffering servant was crucified, but who rose to life and ever lives. From the vise, there can flow the sweet taste of grace. The gift of forgiveness. The lightened load of surrender. The allure of kindness. The joy of knowing that on the other side of the Cross, is victory.

In the words of L.B. Cowman, “Every man must go through the tunnel of tribulation before he can travel the elevated road of triumph.“*

A prayer for those who are hard pressed – fill in the blanks: God, this _______________  hurts. Help me to surrender myself your grip. Even in the squeezing, help me to relax in the vise, and do not let this trial drive me to despair, but closer to you. Meet us in our hardest moment, Jesus, and produce in us sweet fruit — joy, peace, patience, kindness, tenderhearted grace and forgiveness — so that our lives may be a testimony of refreshment to those around us.

In Jesus name, Amen.

^{*Cowman, Mrs. Charles E. Streams in the Desert, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 1996, p. 137}