Sisters of Grace

“I would have fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13 KJV)

This entire Psalm is truly a bold declaration of faith. It has been a prayer for me many times! This verse in particular, the dramatic nature of it truly resonates with me. I had fainted, (Lose consciousness; weak and dizzy) Many reference this to meaning faint of heart so to speak, and that means something is too intense for someone to handle. Also could mean lack of courage. When I think of these statements I think of being unable to bear the weight of something heavy in our lives. There are many circumstances that can put us in this state of mind.

If we watch the news and listen to the chatter of social media, it will be easy to feed into fear and worry. There are rumors of food and supplies shortages about to take place in the US. The climate change, and economic difficulties all over the world. What if it is true? Will we start panicking? What will we stand upon in the days of trouble? David says in this Psalm, that the Lord is who he will be relying on. Sometimes we have to take a stand, and declare that we will stay in faith regardless of what it looks like.

The thing about faith in God it takes great courage, because oftentimes we cannot see anything happening externally. We have checked off our little do-gooder list and yet there seems to be no response from God. This is where this verse has shown up in my life. I have had to wait out some uncomfortable situations, without losing hope completely because I know the character of God. That is the same for David he knows that his faith must be stronger than his doubts, fears, or external circumstances.

What is faith anyway? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV). In short, faith is the belief that what is unseen is still worth believing in because that is the basis of our walk with God. He is an unseen God, and we choose to believe the testimonies and the ancient texts of faith. The essence of believing without necessarily seeing. Everyone is born with a measure of faith and that faith must be grown like these little seeds pictured above.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by hearing the word of God.” (Romans 10:17 NKJV). Our faith gets stronger when we meditate, pray and put into practice what we have learned. Then when a believer has been indwelled by the Holy Spirit, they are able to have a deeper belief in who God. The Holy Spirit testifies who God is to our inner knowing. The Holy Spirit is our helper and guide, but different from our human spirit and intuition. Our intuition is based on the natural, while the Holy Spirit is a supernatural being.

Suffering can have many different causes: and none of us are exempt from it.

These are some of the forms of suffering: Satanic attacks, sinful disobedience against God, consequences of sin, persecution from unbelievers, and pruning from God. As Christian’s we believe that suffering has purpose, I also believe that other religions also see suffering as a model for growth. “We grow through, what we go through.” It’s is a belief that a believer in Jesus, suffers for the glory of God, just as he did. David understood that he would go through hardships, but they could be weighed against the goodness of God. He declared that every time God’s goodness trumps all these things, regardless of the kind of suffering.

The weight of our burdens can often feel like the picture above, it’s heavy and we are in need of a spotter. We need someone to help us bear the weight, in case our arms give out as we are pushing it away from us. Can the guy lift the weights alone? It is possible, yet dangerous. The same goes for our daily lives, we need God and each other to assist us in carrying the tough burdens. We don’t want to risk fainting and loosing our grip. David felt the weight of life, pressing him down and yet he chose to declare God’s goodness and faithfulness anyway! Jesus said “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 ESV).

Jesus wants to meet us in the weary, heavy, tired, and say: “Let me help.”

It’s as if he is standing over you, with each lift and helping you hold that bar up one more time. Just one more day, one foot before the other; each step harder than the last. We feel our strength failing and right before we drop it, we cry out for help! It’s too much, I cannot do this alone! The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to. Jesus is our strength. He gives us what we need to carry on.

“I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living.” Psalm 21:13

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