Men Ought to Pray and Not to Faint

 

Dennis Edwards

I wanted to talk to you a little bit this evening about "Don't Faint," or in the morning, whenever you are going to be watching this, not to faint in your mind. Yesterday, we were listening to Psalm 27 where David said, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."(Psalm 27:13) Then he goes on to say, "Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait I say on the Lord."(Psalm 27:14) 

So, David is talking about how he would have fainted, but he had the vision of the Lord, of being with the Lord, the heavenly vision, like it says in Hebrews chapter 12. In chapter 11 we see the great men of faith who died for their faith, and it says, "These all kept the faith," because they kept looking unto Jesus (the author and finisher of their faith).(Hebrews 12:2) They had the heavenly vision.

David is telling us the same thing. He would have fainted unless he had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Unless he believed that the Lord was gracious and even though this world was such a mess, that there is heaven, and there is a place afterwards where we are going to go and be with God. So David had that confidence, that sure confidence of eternal life.

[All the way back in the Book of Job, written about the time of Abraham around 2000 BC, we see Job with the same assurance of eternal life. He proclaims, 

"For I know that my redeemer (the Messiah or Promised Seed) liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh (my new body) shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins (interior organs) be consumed within me." (Job 19:25&26)

So our forefathers, the fathers of the faith, had that same confidence, that same hope and same assurance of eternal life in the Redeemer Jesus Christ that we have.]

I want to go over a little song here written by a lady called Annie Johnson Flint who was a woman who had arthritis for many years and she wrote some beautiful poems when she was suffering with her infantile/adult arthritis. She had forty years of arthritis. This is one of her poems. It's a little song and it goes like this.

"He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, he addeth his mercy. To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite richess in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again. 

"When we have exhausted our store of endurance. When our faith has failed ere the day is half done. When we've reached the end of our hoarded resources, the Father's full giving has only begun. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite richess in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again."

So here, Annie Johnson Flint is talking about don't faint, don't faint in your mind. Right? It says, "He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, he addeth his mercy. To multiplied trials his multiplied peace. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite richess in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again."

"When we have exhausted our store of endurance. When our faith has failed ere the day is half done. When we've reached the end of our hoarded resources, the Father's full giving has only begun. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite richess in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again."

So God is able to meet our needs, so that we faint not. We do not need to be fainting in our minds. In Galatians we read where Apostle Paul says, in Galatians 6:9, he says, "Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." So Paul is admonishing us not to faint, but to keep our eyes on the heavenly goal. And who is our best example of someone who didn't faint? It's Jesus himself. Right. So we can, like it says in Hebrews, it says, "For consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds."(Hebrews 12:3)

So we don't..., you know, when you are fainting, we need to consider Jesus.And remember his example. But how can we find that strength? David the psalmist says we need to wait on the Lord. If we are fainting in our minds, (David says) he would have fainted unless he believed to see the goodness of the Lord. Then he says, "Wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen thine heart." So, if we are fainting, it's because we are not spending enough time with the Lord to be strengthened. Because the Lord doesn't want us to faint. He wants us to be strong. (The Bible)... says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might."(Ephesians 6:10)

[Some other verses that came to mind when transcribing this talk were Ephesisnas 4:23 that says, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Or as Apostle Paul writes elsewhere, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."(Romans 12:2) We shoul not be fainting in our minds, but we should be renewing our minds by spending time with the Lord in His word and in prayer and in meditation.

Apostle Peter also wrote, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is be brought unto you, at the revelation of Jesus Christ."(1 Peter 1:13) Peter says that the prophets of old searched and enquired and prophesized about the grace that should come unto us. (1 Peter 1:10) So if we want that grace, that is already available, we just need to spend the time with Jesus and grab a hold of it. It's ours for the asking. "Ask and ye shall receive."(Matthew 7:7) 

We need to rebuke those lying vanities, like Jonah had to do. "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."(Jonah 2:8) We need to rebuke the lies the devil is whispering in our ears, that we have blown it so bad, that there's no hope us, and God can't use us, and come back to full faith. A faith that says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) 

And elsewhere we read, "For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which which I have committed unto him against that day." (2 Timothy 1:12b) "Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."(Philippians 1:6) We need to hold onto and believe these promises. They are ours for the claiming, so that we do not faint.]

 Back to the original talk.

So what does Jesus say? Jesus gave a parable and he said this, in Luke 18: 1, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Okay? When you are fainting, what do you need to do? You need to pray, so that you don't faint. If you are fainting, you are not spending enough time with the Lord. You are not resting enough with the Lord, you are not getting your strength from the Lord. "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." If you are fainting in your mind it is because you are not having enough time with the Lord in prayer.

The other day I was really battling some fainting of my mind and I asked one of my colleagues, "Can you please pray with me?" He said, "Well, we're going to have prayer later at 8:00 o'clock, that's when we have prayer." I said, "João, I'm asking you to pray with me, because I need prayer now." He said, Oh, okay, I'll pray, and we prayed and I was strengthened. So don't be afraid to ask for prayer. We all need it. When you are fainting and battling in your mind, ask for prayer. 

[There's great power in united prayer together as one can chase a thousand, but two can put ten thousands to flight. (Deuteronomy 32:30) God's word says to ask for prayer.

"Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. the effectual fervant prayer of a righteous man avails much."(James 5:13-16)]

What we see here in Jonah, the Book of Jonah, when Jonah was disobedient unto the Lord and got himself in the belly of the whale in the middle of the ocean or wherever it was. And what happened? It says, 

"And when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came unto thee, in thine holy temple,"(Jonah 2:9)

In other words, my prayer came into thy presence. So when Jonah was fainting, he remembered the Lord, and then he prayed. He got himself in trouble by being disobedient. Okay. There he is in a big mess inside the belly of the whale. He remembered the Lord and he prayed and the Lord heard him and his prayer came into the Lord's presence. His fainting caused him to pray. Jesus said, "Men ought not to faint, but to pray." Okay.

[And remember, when you are getting correction from the Lord through sickness or some other circumstance, do not faint. We go back to Hebrews 12 and we read a quote from the Old Testament (Proverbs 3:11&12) which says,

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (Hebrews 12:5&6)

So do not faint in your affliction or correction. Whatever God does or allows is done with love and it will bring forth good fruit, "if we faint not." We should take the attitude of the psalmist who wrote,

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." (Psalm 119:67) And "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." (Psalm 119:71)]

Another nice passage in Deuteronomy ... that the Lord promised ....to the Israelites (when they) were going out to battle, ... was this: 

"As ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."(Deuteronomy 20:3-4)

So he says there, "Let not your hearts be faint, nor fearful, nor tremble, nor be terrified, because the Lord is with you." And the Lord is going to be with you, but you have to spend that time with him.

Okay, I am going to close up here with these other (couple of verses).... In Proverbs it tells us that "If we faint in the day of adversity our strength is small."(Proverbs 24:10) We shouldn't be fainting. We should be renewing our strength. There is a beautiful place in Isaiah that we are going to read because this is one of the classic passages that talks about fainting and not fainting. Isaiah 40:28-31.

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."

Okay, so there we see some verses on not fainting, on spending time with the Lord, on going to the Lord when we feel faint, on spending the time with the Lord to get the strength that we need. So we should faint not. "Be not weary and faint in your minds." Okay? 

"When my soul fainted with in me, I remembered the Lord." "Men ought not to faint, or men ought always to pray, and not to faint," said Jesus. So if you are fainting or feeling discouraged or down, spend that time with the Lord. Get your Bible out and read. Read the Psalms. Read the Gospels. Just read wherever the Lord shows you to, and pour out your heart to Him, and He is going to strengthen your heart.

The days are troubling. There is one more verse here in Luke that talks about the last days, "...that men's hearts would be failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." And that's what's happening. We are in ...(a) crisis situation and  men's hearts are failing them for fear, but our's are not (failing), because we (are) spending time with the Lord. 

"Distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."(Luke 21:25b-26a)

It's normal (that) people are going to faint, but we are not going to faint, because we are going to have our eyes on Jesus. We are going to be looking unto Jesus. Because we are going to consider Him, we are not going to faint and be weary in our minds. Because Jesus made it, He is going to give us the strength to make it, also. He is our good example and we are going to look to Him. We, maybe, would have fainted, but because, we are going to wait on the Lord, we are going to renew our strength. We are going to mount up with wings as eagles. We are going walk and not faint, and run, and we are not going to be weary.

So, Lord, we pray for our dear friends today, Lord, this evening, this morning, wherever they are, whatever time it is, that you strengthen them, Lord, help them not to faint. Help them to take the time they need with you to be strengthened, to read your word, to meditate on your word, to spend time in prayer, to spend time in praise, to listen to Christian hymns and songs, to lift up their hearts and minds to you, so that you can strengthen them for these days that are ahead. "Because men ought not to faint, but to pray." In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen