Do Not Faint in the Day of Adversity

The recent ice storm was but a distant memory, and it was a glorious day. I sat on the porch sketching the picture above. How quickly frigid, grey, disastrous cold had changed to blue skies and warm sunny tendrils sifting through the naked branches, warming my hands as I drew!

There's a lesson in that, Lord, isn't there?

One should never be caught in the trap of believing that the desperate straits of today will always be our reality. While we yet have breath, our reality will sift and change. Always. The absence of change is death. Praise God for change!

Still. When the struggles are severe, it is not always easy to see the joy, or the worthy place where those struggles will finally cease. Charles Spurgeon said:  God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains his soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service.

We will not know the strength of our faith unless it is exercised. No one knows if the boat will hold them until they launch themselves in it upon the waters.

Faith untried in the waters of adversity is a shallow faith. Faith that remains when all else is taken away is a faith worth dying for. Strangely, it is at that point in our walk with God that we most live in Him.

No one longs for troubles. I would do almost anything to send all mine packing. Now. But the one thing I must not do is why I was probably brought those trials in the first place: I must not abandon my faith.

Job of the Bible wallowed in the midst of impossible struggles. His family, livelihood, and health were all destroyed within days of each other. He cried out in the most poignant critical turning point of his crumbling life: though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.

How many of us can say that? NO MATTER WHAT Lord, I will trust in you. That is a faith that will overcome. We have to understand, He may indeed slay us. Our comfort, even our life is not His goal. A soul prepared for eternity is what God is after.
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1 Peter 5:10 

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Philippians 4:12-13 

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Proverbs 24:10 

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.