Proverbs 24:10 (NLT)
If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.
How easily is your boat rocked? What does it take to send you into a tailspin? How quickly do you hit the PANIC button? Do you have a tendency to cut and run when the going gets tough? For some, their tendency is to find a way out of difficult situations – any way out – and that may come in the form of denial, drinking, drug use, or distraction. But for the Christian, not only should we expect pressure to be an ordinary part of life…we should be getting better all the time at handling it.
I heard about a book that examined the similarities between the top 100 businesspeople in America and the #1 thing they had in common was…they had all failed more than just about anyone else they knew. Interesting. The point was not that they HAD failed, but that their failure had not stopped them from moving forward. They learned from their mistakes and they failed in the right direction. The Christian life is designed to work the exact same way.
The Bible is full of failure and pressure-packed situations. Just ask Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, or Paul (to name a few). But the Christian has a rather large advantage, to say the least. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all” (Ps 34:19-20). “For a just man falls seven times and rises up again” (Pr 24:16). Sometimes it’s the decisions we make or the opposition we face, but when our failure is based solely on the fact that there is significant pressure on us…then Solomon is right, and our strength is “too small”, most likely because we are only utilizing our own.
I’m sure you know the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, but if you are a follower of Christ, you have to remember that the spiritually tough never get going alone or in their own power. Pressure is a natural part of life, but the supernatural power of God and His Promises is always enough to overcome it. You are more than a conqueror (Rom. 8:37) and you cannot de destroyed (2 Cor. 4:8-9). Your life is built on a Rock (Ps. 61:2) and if you keep working to do what is good, you will, in due season, reap a reward (Gal. 6:9).
