October 7 – How strong are you?

If you faint in the day of trouble, your strength is small!   (Proverbs 24:10  NET)

Hidden in this statement are several truths that lead to an amazing promise.  First of all, we can all expect to have days of trouble throughout life.  Problems are not a sign that God has left us, nor do they necessarily mean that our faith is weak.  Problems are a normal part of life, and if we respond in the proper way they will help us to grow and mature, strengthen our faith and draw closer to God.  We should all thank God for our problems because we’ve learned our greatest lessons through them.

But whenever these times come the devil tries to turn them in his favor.  He wants us to think that a life of serving God is trouble-free, and when trouble does appear, he wants us to blame God for failing to protect us, or for not answering our prayers.  Many people have fallen away from God completely, or become cold in their faith when they fell for this argument.  But the truth is that whenever God allows a day of trouble to come, He is demonstrating a father’s love by allowing us to be disciplined, and all good discipline builds-up rather than tears-down.

Whenever you’re tempted to blame God for failing to protect you, an alarm should go off in your head.  God’s plans are so much higher than anything we can comprehend, we don’t always know at the moment what His goal is, but we can be sure it is good.

The second truth is that we have the choice to be weak or strong in a day of trouble.  It can spell good for our lives, or it can spell evil; the deciding factor is our faith.  Many people boast about how great a faith they have, how close they are to God, how they are filled with His presence, and yet in the day of trouble they implode.  Clearly, their strength is small.  If we have faith, it needs to be used most of all when trouble comes.  These are the moments we need to live for, like a soldier looking forward to battle.  He knows there are risks, but he also knows that that is the time to prove himself and make a difference.

Only immature children constantly complain about things that don’t go their way.  The people I look up to for spiritual guidance get excited whenever their faith is put to the test, when trouble breaks out.  They immediately flip the switch of faith and start determining how they want that situation to turn out, committed to bringing glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and shame to Satan.