In the heat of the summer, in confusing and troublesome times, in difficult circumstances, our hearts sometimes faint. We begin to wonder if anything makes a difference, and we are tempted to give up.

When our eyes and our thoughts focus on this life, things can seem hopeless.

Paul talked about fainting in II Corinthians 4, but he assured the church that ‘we faint not’.  He gave reasons for this assurance throughout the chapter.  (This was after he talked of the glory of the Lord in chapter three.)

Here is a list of reasons not to faint that I found in chapter four. Perhaps you can find others. It is a great read!

We don’t faint (or give up) because –

• we have received mercy (v. 1);
• we have a ministry (v. 1) – If we are still breathing, God has a purpose and a task for us.
• there is a lost world to win (v. 3);
• God’s light has shined in our hearts (v. 6);
• God is in us (v. 7)
• God gives power (v. 7)
• Jesus is alive! (v. 10);
• we believe (v. 13);
• we will live after this mortal body perishes (v. 14);
• we have been given abundant grace (v. 15);
• our goal is to glorify God (v. 15);
• our inward man receives daily renewal (v. 16);
• the trouble of this world cannot compare with the glory that is to come (v. 17);
• what we cannot see is more real than what we can see (v. 18).

We may be troubled and perplexed and persecuted and cast down, but we are not

• distressed,
• in despair,
• forsaken, or
• destroyed! (v. 8 – 9)

So, like Paul, we faint not.  We continue each day, serving, giving thanks, trusting, sharing, loving, ministering, living, and we faint not.

Take courage!  God has placed His power in our earthly bodies. He will do the work. We just need to follow Him.

Faint not!

II Corinthians 4:⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. ⁸ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Photo – The Cypress That Did Not Faint ©Beth Mims