No matter where you look, it seems like there is pressure from every direction to do something, to be someone, to go anywhere other than where you are right now. Not all pressure is bad. In this day, it seems like everywhere we look, there is negative pressure to take on the values of the world, and this is exactly what the enemy wants. God instead wants you to thrive under pressure when the world tries to bring you down. In John 7, we see Jesus surviving pressure from the enemy who did not understand his motive, pressure from his brothers who did not know Him. And yet Jesus did not succumb to the pressure, rather, in the text he thrived under pressure.  

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival because my time has not yet fully come.” After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.  

However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 

John 7:1-10 (NIV) 

The first thing that the text points out is that Jesus was able to thrive under pressure because he knew who he was in God. The text begins with Jesus experiencing this pressure from his brothers attempting to convince him to go to the festival of Tabernacles in Judea so that he could “get more followers.” They valued fame and fortune, so they pushed their values on him. Jesus was able to overcome his brothers’ pressures because he knew who he was. He was not designed to fit their mold, because he lived beyond the mold. He was not designed to meet their standards because Jesus lived above and beyond worldly standards. They wanted him to be just like them. But Jesus wasn’t like them; Jesus was God. However, because they didn’t know him, and because Jesus knew they didn’t know him, he was able to thrive under pressure because he knew who he was in God.  

The people around you will pressure you and project their values on you, but the way you thrive is by knowing who you are in God. There is nothing anyone can do to change you from what God has said about you. The world will try to name you. The pressures will try to mold you. But you can thrive under pressure when you know who you are. 

Secondly, Jesus was able to thrive under pressure because he knew what time it was. In verse 6, he says, “now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime.” Earlier in the chapter, John tells us that Jesus stayed away from Judea for a time because the people there were trying to kill him. He wasn’t worried about the place or about the people. He was worried about the timing, because he was sent by God, he could not go when other people said go. He could only go when God said it was time. 

Time governed everything about the life of Jesus, and at just the right time he was born and conceived of the Holy Spirit, at just the right time he was born in a manger, time was everything to Jesus. But Jesus understood that there are also different types of time. 

There is the Chronos time that is on our watches. But God does not function on the Chronos time alone. God is not phased when the watch is missing. Our God functions on Kairos time. And Kairos time is about the specific ordained moments of God. When you order your life according to the Kairos time of God, you are never late, because God is always on time. When you order your life according to the Kairos time of God, you may find yourself delaying when others are rushing forward. You may find yourself accelerating when others are taking their time. But if you are on God’s time, you know he’s not just ordering your life, but he’s ordering the lives of everyone else around you as well.  

That leads me to the last point of our text: Jesus thrived under pressure because he understood his assignment. Jesus says to his brothers in verse 7, “the world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil.” Jesus understood something important about the call of God for leaders today, that the call of God is not for you to make people happy. The call of any leader is not for you to placate and please people all the time, because if you do that, you will find yourself pulled by the strings of too many entities all at the same time. Jesus understood, if I follow my assignment, there will be some who hate me and some who love me. But because he understood his assignment, he was willing to do what God said, no matter what the people said. Jesus knew that to fulfill his assignment, he was going to have to do some things that other people didn’t understand. 

May God give us the boldness to do things that other people do not understand. Why in the world are you still running a college at a time when educational institutions are losing popularity? Because I have an assignment by God, and I’m going to stay on this assignment until God says, Go. It’s simply because we understand the value of obedience and obedience is a long road, I’m told. Obedience requires that we sacrifice ourselves and surrender our will, but if we follow our assignment, we will get our reward.  

Your assignment is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you, and when you do your assignment on Earth, I believe you’ll receive a heavenly reward. I pray that we might hear the blessed words, “well done, thy good and faithful servant. You did not succumb to the pressures of the world, but you held on to God’s unchanging hand.” 

These are trying times. These are not easy times. These are turbulent times. But you cannot succumb to the pressure of the times. You must know who you are as a child of God. You must know whose time matters. And you must be steadfast on your assignment before God. If I’m steadfast, then I’ll get the reward that I’m longing for, not the promotion, not the accolades, but the words of affirmation from the one who matters most. 

Watch Rev. Dr. Nicole Martin’s full devotional from the 2026 International Forum:

Rev. Dr. Nicole Massie Martin holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is the President and CEO at Christianity Today and founder and Executive Director of Soulfire International Ministries. She is an accomplished writer and author of three books including Nailing It: Why Successful Leadership Demands Suffering & Surrender. She serves on various boards and councils and leads the Grow Ministry at Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Maryland. She and her husband, Mark, are proud parents to two amazing daughters.