Overcoming Adversity...

 I wanted to share a couple verses I was looking at today for my devotions.  They speak deeply to a part of my heart that continually needs inspiring.  I want worse than bad to be a person that steps up in times of adversity and difficulty.  These trials that we go through are tests to reveal our strength or weakness.  Lately, I’ve been faltering in my resolve, so these verses were a shot in the arm this morning…

 

Proverbs 24:10 – “If you falter in a time of adversity, how small is your strength!”

 

I know this verse can seem like a slap in the face, but I don’t take it that way.  I think it’s because I played competitive sports and remember getting some pretty passionate pep talks from our coach at half times.  When you face a daunting uphill battle or a formidable foe, it’s easy to start to fold when you feel like it’s overpowering you, but this is just the time to gird of your loins and dig deep.  Adversity reveals Maturity.  It also grows maturity.  I admit that my pain tolerance and psychological thresholds aren’t as stout as I wish they were.  But there is nothing so satisfying as facing impossible odds and coming out on top.  This goes for big moments as well as the small stuff.  Sometimes certain sustained seasons of adversity can take me out, and I’m really trying to work on that.  I have overcome so much, but there is further to go.  I want to be a trusted leader in times of trouble.  God, help me to stand in the storm.

 

Jeremiah 12:5 - "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

This is a little jewel I stumbled upon as I was reading through the Bible this past summer.  It speaks to a similar line of thinking, but does it by asking questions.  If something small breaks you down, what will you do when you really face your Goliath.  If I’m stumbling in safe country, how will I respond in the thickets?  If I’m worn out racing with my equals, how will I compete when the real horse power shows up.  Just like David, we have to learn to kill smaller threats if we ever hope to stand up to the giants in our life and cut their heads off.  Again, these questions could feel demoralizing or defeating, but I don’t take them that way.  I’m awakened by their call to the deep parts of my heart…the recesses that hold the best of my strength summoning it out of the shadows.  Again, every day is a test that will lead to a testimony.  I so badly want to graduate from smaller battles to bigger ones because I am trusted based on past performances and then entrusted by God with high and harder callings.  God, help me to never waste a single challenge…every victory takes my small strength and makes it just a little bigger.

 

I hope these verses encourage you to rise to the challenges you’re facing with the strength that God has deposited inside you.  Our futures depend on how we respond to adversity.