Proverbs 24.10
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
The storms of life test you and refine you. If you trust God, the storms of life make you stronger. Therefore, we should not flinch in the face of adversity. The opening verses of the book of James teaches this:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1.2-4)
Unfortunately, a significant number of professing Christians today seem to have the expectation that when a person believes in Jesus, life will get easier and more comfortable, and God will protect them from the hassles and difficulties that happen in the course of life.
This, of course, is not the gospel. The Lord makes no such promises in scripture. When bad things happen (which they inevitably do), many Christians are quick to react with: “Why me?” or “How could God let this happen?” What follows is confusion and anger and doubt.
And big time stress.
What motivates people to believe in Jesus? Is it to serve Christ as Lord and be an agent of the Kingdom of God in the midst of a fallen and broken world, or is it to get saved and be happy and have God protect them from the hassles and difficulties of life?
The first chapter of James goes on to say, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1.12)
Here again is the message that the storms of life are a test, and James encourages us to remain steadfast when the storm comes. Your job is to respond to those tests by trusting God, praying and asking the Lord for wisdom, and appropriating the blessings and power that God makes available to you in Christ. For a Christian to respond any other way is a failure to believe and obey.
Let’s be clear that it is not self-strength that gives us the ability to remain steadfast in the midst of trials; it is strength from the Lord that we appropriate by faith. This is precisely what we studied in Ephesians 6: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
But make no mistake, trusting God and appropriating his strength requires significant effort on our part. It is not passive; it is proactive faith. You can call it discipline-driven faith, or you can call it faith-driven discipline, but the reality is the same. In response to the challenges of life, you must trust God and pray, you must build skill and act with discipline, and you must do so with relentless perseverance. As you act in faith, the Lord meets you and gives you strength. That’s how it works each step of the way.
Just as an athlete endures bodily stress in order to build physical strength and endurance, so it is necessary for a Christian to endure the stress of the trials of life in order to build spiritual strength and endurance. There is a principle in physical training that applies to spiritual training: Go to failure. An athlete builds max strength and endurance when he does repetitions of an exercise to the point of failure. This means he keeps doing reps until he simply has no more strength. He goes to failure.
Average athletes do not go to failure. They quit at the first sign of serious discomfort. The best athletes — the elite — experience the pain, but they push through the pain and keep doing reps until they cannot do any more. They train to failure. I call this “productive discomfort”, and it is a distinguishing characteristic of elite competitors. It is also a distinguishing characteristic of committed followers of Christ.
When you experience difficult circumstances in life, don’t stop. Keep trusting God and keep going. Embrace productive discomfort and keep doing the reps of obedience to God’s word. And here is what will happen: God will meet you at the point of failure. When all strength is gone and you just can’t do another rep, that is where the Lord will supply you with his strength and power.
Adversity is a reality. It is also inevitable. No one wants it, but everyone gets it. The key variable is: How will you respond? When you are in the storm, don’t flinch. Trust the Lord who created you, redeemed you, and called you to himself. Trust the risen Christ who did not flinch when he faced the horrors of the cross, and then defeated death itself.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” (Ephesians 3.14-16)
