Thomas Paine, known as the pen of the American Revolution, wrote these words during a time of great trial and peril for the new nation.
So it has always been. As much as we dislike them, and as much as we would avoid them if we could — times of trouble are the best times for developing moral strength. Just as hard work and exercise develop physical muscles, so do mental and emotional struggles develop moral muscles.
Into our lives as believers, there will surely come times of strain, pressure, and difficulty. These may take many different forms. Sometimes these troubles may fall upon a community, collectively. At other times they may come upon any one of us individually. During such times, our souls (our hearts, minds, or inner beings) may feel besieged, buffeted, and in imminent danger of being crushed. We may desperately thrash about, like a wild animal caught in a trap, but to no avail. We may fall back upon a frantic search for the quick fix, the one action, the one form of words, or the one right answer — something, anything, that will make it all better.
Even comfortable, peaceful times require spiritual strength if we are to survive. But experience, indeed all history, teaches us an important lesson: when hard times come, we will surely need even more spiritual strength. The house must be built, not just for the fine weather, but also for the storm. The army must do more than look good on paper, or the parade ground; it must be ready for the day of battle. And faith must be ready for the time of testing, trial, and persecution. The spiritual life needs to be strong enough to hold on through terror, tempest, and turmoil. Otherwise, it is no more than a delusion, and all our religious exercises merely a pretense. Who are we fooling?
“Times that try men’s souls” are surely coming. How can we prepare for them? By making our days, and evenings, count right now. The athlete rises early and trains in her sport — track and field, tennis, golf, whatever it may be — day after day, when no one is holding a stopwatch or keeping score. The soldier marches countless miles, and practices difficult drills, knowing that what he learns by exhaustive repetition, in every imaginable situation, may one day spell the difference between life and death. In such work of preparation there is, or should be, a fearful sense of urgency: ‘Will I measure up when the moment of truth comes?’
“If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!” (Prov 24:10).
Are we surprised at this idea? We should not be. Every character trait that we develop patiently and consistently, in good times, may well be put to the test when bad times come. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The gold of our faith will most certainly be tried one day in the furnace of affliction (1Pe 1:7). How well we do under adverse conditions will reveal how strong we are. The time of trouble is coming, as surely as sunrise tomorrow, even if we know not the precise day or hour.
A man never knows his strength until he is put in a situation that demands much from him. A woman never knows her courage until she is put in circumstances that call for all her reserves.
“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!… it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” (Prov 6:6,8).
“Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer” (Prov 30:25).
The classic example of such foresight and industry was Joseph, when he was elevated from slavery to a ruling position in Egypt (Gen 41). He knew by prophetic revelation that a terrible famine was coming upon his world, and that the only hope of survival was to lay up great stores of food for the hard times coming. With God’s help he carried out his plan, and in so doing saved countless lives.
There is, as far as I know, only one real source of spiritual strength: the Word of God. We must imitate the ant; we must imitate Joseph. We must lay up reserves of this Word by private study, and by attending and participating in ecclesial Bible classes. And we must do this all in “the good years”, so that when “the lean years” come, and they surely will, we may have a full storeroom (Matt 13:52).
We must put our spare time to profitable use, in every way we can possibly devise. We must pray about this. If our prayers are restricted to praying for, and giving thanks for, material needs, then how spiritually feeble we are. We are like the multitudes that marveled when Jesus multiplied the natural bread, but drifted away when he talked about spiritual bread. Our prayers must be not just for food and shelter and health, but especially for our spiritual needs. Then our heavenly Father will grant us the riches of His eternal Word, and build us up so that we might be strong in faith.
Furthermore, we must exercise our spiritual muscles by sharing what we know with others, by preaching to those outside and inside. There are so many different ways in which we may do this. We exercise ourselves spiritually so the Word of life may dwell in us richly, and so that we may be able instruct and encourage ourselves, and one another, in exhortations, Bible classes, hymns, and prayers. Indeed, we may help others by the example of our actions, every day.
Let us think again of Proverbs 24:10: “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!” At first glance, the sentiment of this verse seems very pessimistic, akin to 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 [or, NIV mg: ‘If you put your trust in a land of safety’], how will you manage in the thickets by [or, NIV mg: ‘the flooding of’] the Jordan?”
Both verses strongly suggest that a coming time of testing will surely reveal all our shortcomings. If that is so, then what is the use? The little nagging voice inside our heads whispers, ‘Why bother? You might as well give up now.’
But both verses, though dark and foreboding on the surface, carry within themselves seeds of renewal and promise: ‘Don’t underestimate times of trouble,’ they say. ‘Out of these dark times there will arise new light, if you truly believe.’ It will come to the one who knows, when the time comes, how and where to find the great strength to help in his time of need (Heb 4:16).
In the proverb (24:10), the words “trouble” and “small” (“adversity” and “small” in the KJV) are closely related in the Hebrew. “Trouble” is “tsarah”, literally a narrow, confining, or pressure-packed space. It is derived from “tsar” (small), which has the same idea of being close or constrained. This suggests the question: ‘Will we let the constraints of the times constrain our strength? Or will we rise above, and expand beyond, the times to allow our strength and faith to grow, and overcome the constraints?’ To this Jesus supplies an answer:
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt 17:20; cp Luke 17:6).
In the proverb, strength (koach) means not only physical endurance, but mental toughness and moral courage as well. Those whose reserves of strength are depleted by straitened circumstances — and whose reserves will not be depleted? — can appeal to God to be empowered again. Whether the strength has faded due to sorrow and affliction (Psa 31:10), serious illness (Psa 38:10), or old age (Psa 71:9), there is a ready help at hand in faithful prayer. The LORD will always be pleased to answer the prayer of faith, and to grant an increase in mental, moral, and spiritual strength to meet changing conditions. The apostle Paul assures us,
“God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1Co 10:13).
Restricted (tsarah) times and restricted (tsar) strength do not restrict God!
“O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress [‘tsarah’]” (Isa 33:2).
“I call on the LORD in my distress [‘tsarah’], and he answers me” (Psa 120:1).
When our resources are, humanly speaking, failing and about to be depleted, like the widow’s only jug of oil (1Ki 17:16), then is the special time when God’s resources may be most readily available:
“[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2Co 12:9,10).
The great 19th-century preacher Henry Ward Beecher discussed the benefits of times of trouble in a powerful analogy. “Some men,” he said, “seem to grow as the white pine grows, with straight grain.” But he added, ironically, “I notice that all that grow easy, split easy.” (Surely this reminds us of the seed, in Jesus’ parable, that fell on rocky soil, with no depth of earth. It sprang up quickly, but just as quickly withered away: Matt 13:5,6.)
Beecher continued, “There are some men who grow as the mahogany grows, with knots and whirls and contortions of grain. The best timber of the forest has the most knots. Everybody seeks it, because, being hard to grow, it is hard to wear out. And when knots have been sawed and polished, how beautiful they are.”
He added, “There are many who are content to grow straight, like weeds on a dunghill; but there are many others who want to be stalwart and strong like the monarchs of the forest. Yet, when God sends winds of adversity to ‘sing a lullaby’ in their branches, they do not like to grow that way. They dread the treatment that is really giving toughness to their soul and strength to its fiber.”
Which is simply another way of saying what the writer to the Hebrews said: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees” (Heb 12:11,12).
This last phrase, about feeble arms and weak knees, recalls the example of Gideon and his men:
“Gideon and his three hundred men [were] exhausted [‘faint’: KJV] yet keeping up the pursuit” (Jdg 8:4).
It is quite possible (no matter how well-prepared one is) to come to the hour of the greatest trial, and to feel feeble of arm and weak of knee. It is quite possible to experience faintness and think yourself unable to cope, yet at the same to gird up the loins, in faith; to persevere through the faintness, as though it were (which it is) but one more element of the trial; and to continue to pursue righteousness. I tell you, the person who perseveres through faintness will find that his little faith will grow to mountain-moving size.
The mountain that we need most to move in our lives is the mountain of doubt, despair, and loss of hope, when the times come to try our souls. Let us pray, and prepare, now. Then we will be all the better prepared to pray again when the trial comes: “Lord, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
How precisely will this wonderful promise be fulfilled? How will the Lord’s strength be completed, realizing its full maturity and potential, in our poor mortal weakness (2Co 12:9,10)? How, exactly, will our small faith grow until it measures up to the mountainous task before us (Matt 17:20; cp Luke 17:6) in times that try men’s souls? How will God work in and with and through us to achieve His eternal purpose? Answers to such questions as these are scarcely forthcoming now, for we see “but a poor reflection as in a [polished metal] mirror” (1Co 13:12). We must simply do our part, now, to prepare. And we must believe that “in all things” God will work “for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28), even if those “things” be “trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword” (v 35). As old William Cowper put it, in our Hymn 142:
“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head…“His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One