Endurance outwits adversity

Adversity is like a tick that saps out strength and life out of its host. If you have little strength in the time of adversity you will faint at best or you will take your own life at the worst.
Almost every week stories are written in the newspapers about men and women committing suicide.
The reason behind all the cases of suicide is failure to endure adverse circumstances. A man finds himself neck-deep in debt and takes his own life. Another man finds his wife in illicit sex with another and he kills himself.
 One pastor compares his small congregation with the larger one of another pastor and he visits a witchdoctor for “spiritual empowerment.”
 On the other hand one woman cannot endure abject poverty and she turns into a sex commercial worker. Another woman fails to see how she can live without a baby and she commits suicide. All these examples show that adversity is a real force and if our enduring capacity is small we cannot make it to the end.
In comparison, when adversity visited the wise old Job, though he loathed his favourite food, cursed the day he was born and longed for death, he remained steadfast trusting in the redeeming power of God.
And God restored him with double blessings. When adversity touched our Lord Jesus Christ he felt forgotten and forsaken by the heavenly father but he patiently endured the cup of suffering and came out of it victorious and triumphant. These two remain our best examples because of their fortitude in trouble. They had inexhaustible reservoirs of spiritual and emotional strength which enabled them to go through their fate without fainting or giving up.
Perhaps we are not on the same page because you are not sure what adversity is all about. Well, it is the sum total of all troubles, difficulties, afflictions we face in life. Whether the adversity is permitted by God as a test or sent by the devil as a weapon he uses to accomplish his mission of stealing, killing, and destroying is not the point. The point is, are you spiritually and emotionally strong enough to endure it to the end? Do you think you have enough strength to go through the bitterness of bereavement? Can you patiently bear loss of treasured goods or money to thieves or robbers? Will you sanely fight a losing battle with a terminal disease?
These crucial questions are meant for you to weigh your current strength against unforeseen adversities. But pastor, where exactly are you driving at?
Do you suppose that I should be pessimistic about life when the Bible admonishes us to be optimistic? No, I am not saying be pessimistic. All I am saying is that, because we live in a fallen world where Satan is like a spiritual mad dog let loose seeking whom he may devour, adversity is real and is a potent force.
Even the Bible itself does not deny it. In fact it admonishes us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ and to put on the whole armour of God so that we will be able to withstand in the evil day. I want you to be able to handle all things as a demonstration of your victorious faith in God.
God sees adversity as the crucible of our transformation. He wants us to remain positive and constructive in our perspective in both favourable and adverse situations. He wants to be well-rounded in character; to be mature and to have no weak spots. God can use adversity to deepen our relationship with Him and to discipline us. He can also use adversity to test whether we can demonstrate to others the faith and hope we claim to have.
Can we like the apostle Paul declare boldly, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry; both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:12-13). Paul intimately knew his God and fully trusted in His keeping power in times of adversity therefore he became a fully orbed man that could handle any situation without fainting or falling.
 If you only know how to handle good times you will perish in bad times.  
To go through adversity successfully you require divine strength, God’s enabling grace. But you need to fill up your reservoir of strength during the good times by spending time feeding on God’s word and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit.
 It is only the man who is full of divine strength who will see his trouble turned into double blessing, test into testimony and adversity into a stepping stone to incredible prosperity.
– Pastor Mairos Mub-vumbi is the founding pastor of Hope In Christ Ministries. You can send your prayer request to him on 0772889766 or mairos78@yahoo.co.uk