"I think I Fainted"

"If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." (Proverbs 24:10-11 ESV
If I faint in the day of trouble or the day of testing, my strength is small. It is a little harder to read it that way isn’t it. If you faint in the day of adversity you are weak, but if i faint in the day of adversity it is because I didn’t see it coming, it was a really hard day at work, the dog ate my Bible, and so on. It is very hard to admit we are sometimes very weak. In the day of testing I blew it big time and the reason was I WAS WEAK. It is easy to convince ourselves we are strong when we need no strength, when there are no tests. We play around in our spiritual disciplines. We go to church staring at the ceiling the whole time, but we were there. We read our bibles but five minutes after we are done can’t remember what we read. We believe we are strong because we are around strong people. We think we are strong because we go to a good church, we believe the right things. It is true those things can help us be spiritually strong but they do not guarantee spiritual strength. Spiritual strength comes from the heart being built up by the Word of God, Strengthened by the Spirit of God and encouraged by the People of God. Spiritual strength comes from spiritual disciples being carried out with passion, purpose and pursuit of the Knowledge of God. He is my strength, He is my rock, He is my fortress, He is my redeemer, He is my Joy and delight. The joy of the LORD is my strength. Adversity is what drives me to my strength. If our strength is small it means we are trusting in ourselves and not God. We are trying to get through this in our own strength and wisdom, and that’s not going to work.
But Solomon adds in vs 11 another point. It is one thing to faint in the day of adversity if you are in church and around other people who can help you and admonish you and pick you up and get you back on your feet again. But it is quite another thing to faint in the day of adversity and be all by yourself. That is dangerous. Yet many, many believers have cut themselves off from fellowship. They only attend church sporadically if at all, and when their adversity comes and they faint there is no one there to pick them up. All they have is Oprah and Dr Phil and that’s not going to get them back on their feet spiritually. So Solomon’s advise to us is to look around. ARe there peopel who have been missing from church for a while, are there people who seem to be really struggling in the day of adversity. We need to go to them, rescue them, hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Yes we could say they should be here, but they aren’t so go to them. God came down to us and rescued us when we could not rescue ourselves. We need to do likewise.
We need to be strong in the power of His might. We need to be growing in the Lord and waiting on the Lord to renew our strength. That strength does not make us aloof and proud. His strength will make us compassionate and sympathetic to those who are struggling in the day of adversity and his strength will enable us to go to them and lead them back to the one who loved them and gave his life for them.
Lord help me to be strong in the day of adversity. Help me to love you, love your word, and love your people. May I not just go through the motions of devotions. May my devotion be driven by a passion to know you and a desire to please you in all I do.