I would have fainted, unless I had believed

Nena Arias | March 30, 2020

I would have fainted, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
(Psalm 27:13-14)

When a series of troubles come, even the strongest people can be subject to feel overwhelmed when challenges and struggles become so heavy and frequent that we “can’t see the forest for the trees”. This is an expression used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. No one is exempt at different intervals in life to have to face these difficult times.

When we face trials, our spirit becomes overburdened and we feel like we may even be reaching a breaking point if we are not careful to have a strong plan in place to face these times of painful growth. The psalmist in the above verses says, that is when his faith in the goodness of the Lord gives him good courage and strengthens his heart. Faith in the Almighty God is the strongest anchor we can have in life at all times. Faith keeps us from becoming despondent and falling under the burdens. We know that he loves us and has our best interest at heart, and he has given us promises that are true and they give us hope that we are going to make it. Those promises keep our thoughts in God and the expectation that he will come to our aid. We dare not trust in ourselves especially the more we consider our shortcomings in the face of these challenges. Many times, we know that if God doesn’t help us, we are done for.

When the psalmist says, “I would have fainted, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” None of us can conceive that the psalmist was a weak person, yet he says if I don’t believe in God and his goodness I am going to faint. When he says, “in the land of the living” he is not referring to the hereafter but to this life and he is saying, I am going to outlive these trials with the goodness and strength of the Lord. I will see his deliverance from all that threatens me and enjoy my life here in the land of the living. The psalmist was very familiar with the promises of the Lord and trusted him to make them good.

When adversities come, we must make a strong effort of faith, so we won’t despair and crumble under the weight of them.

The world is going through times of great trials that are threatening our very existence. That is not an exaggeration. The world is being visited by an “angel of death” named coronavirus.  We are told in Exodus that God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:1-13).  God told Moses to order the Israelite families to sacrifice a lamb and smear the blood on the door of their houses. In this way the angel would know to ‘pass over’ the houses of the Israelites.

This coronavirus is not making a distinction of killing the firstborn, like in Egypt, but it is seeking anyone that it can find to be a formidable host and create its havoc which threatens life itself. It is not respecting borders, age groups, male or female, rich or poor, royalty, celebrities or unknowns. It is crossing all these barriers and striking whoever it can find whose immune system is not strong enough to resist it. Do you know why? Because this is a judgment of God for the whole world. God is strongly warning that we have reached a limit of sin, and if we do not change our evil ways, he will have to annihilate us because he will not be mocked and we won’t be the exception of how he has judged others in the past.

Truly it is a time of humbling ourselves in repentance before our heavenly Father’s throne of grace and for all of us to exercise our faith, pray and call upon the Lord for deliverance. Perhaps the “angel of death” may pass over us. God’s time to help those that trust in him is when all other sources fail. There is nothing to keep us from fainting under all the calamities except the strength of the Lord.

Let us encourage one another to look to the Lord for deliverance and safekeeping; in perfect peace and patience, with expectation and diligent prayer.

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14)

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