Pack of Cards

Anchor Scripture: Proverbs 24:10
 “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” 

When We Fall

Falling like a pack of cards can feel like the journey of every believer. There are seasons when everything seems to come down at once. What looked steady suddenly becomes uncertain, and we find ourselves struggling to hold things together.

Proverbs asks a difficult question: “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength?”

To falter is to lose strength or courage in the face of difficulty. But perhaps the question is not simply about how strong we are. Sometimes, what is small is not our human strength. It is the strength we have been drawing from.

We can spend so much time trying to be prepared, trying to have the right answers and trying to be okay that we forget we were never meant to carry everything by ourselves.

It Is Okay to Need Help

Why do we feel the need to always be okay?

Is that what the Bible teaches us?

Jesus said, 

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus did not promise us a life without trouble. He promised us His peace in the middle of it. There will be times when we need courage. There will be times when we need people. There will be times when we simply cannot carry ourselves.

And that is part of why we have one another.

Sometimes the adversity will still be a lot. The valley will still feel like a valley. But we do not have to walk through it alone. There are people who can carry us, pray for us, encourage us and remind us of what is true when we struggle to remember it ourselves.

Falling Is Not the End

The Bible says that the righteous falls seven times and rises again. The expectation is not that we will never fall. The expectation is that when we fall, we will rise again.

There is a difference between falling and staying down.

Peter fell. Judas also fell. But their responses were different. Peter allowed himself to return to Jesus in repentance. Judas remained trapped in condemnation.

Sometimes, what happens after the fall matters more than the fall itself.

We are more than conquerors. We fight from a place of victory because Christ has already overcome. Our strength is not simply in our ability to withstand everything. It is in knowing whose we are and what Christ has already done.

As Paul reminds us, through Christ, God leads us in triumph.

We Need Each Other

If we are going to be a community of believers, then we have to make room for people who are going through difficult seasons.

People will struggle. People will make mistakes. People will get tired. People will sometimes hurt us, and at other times, we will be the ones who hurt others.

Community is not made up of perfect people.

We need to learn to be patient with one another, especially when someone is in a valley.

Also, we need to learn that not everyone will know how to support us when we are hurting. Some people may not show up in the way we expected them to. Some may not have the capacity to carry what we are carrying.

We have to learn to forgive early.

The same person who could not help us in one season may be the person God uses to help someone else in another. What we learned from one experience may not always be enough for the next one.

Remember that life happens in seasons and grace has to happen in community too.

When Everything Falls

So what do we do when we find ourselves in a valley?

We fix our gaze on Jesus.

He is the burden bearer.

We remind ourselves of who He is and what He has done. We pray, even when we do not have many words. We meditate on Scripture. We speak specific words of truth over the situation instead of allowing fear to have the final word.

And we seek help.

There is wisdom in having trusted believers we can call when things become difficult. People who can pray with us, listen to us and remind us that we are not alone.

Sometimes, we need someone else to remind us to look up when everything around us is telling us to look down.

We Rise Again

A pack of cards can fall because one card loses its balance.

But falling does not mean the cards are useless. It simply means the structure has come down.

There may be seasons when we feel like that. Everything we thought we had under control falls apart.

But Jesus is still there.

The Holy Spirit is still with us.

And we still have one another.

So if you have fallen, do not make the fall your identity.

Get back up.

Receive the help God has placed around you. Forgive where you need to forgive. Pray. Speak truth over your situation. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

You may have fallen, but you are not alone.

And you will rise again.

Reflection

What has been making you feel like your strength is small lately?

Are you allowing yourself to receive help from God and from the people He has placed around you?