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The Danger and Remedy for 'being weary and fainting in our minds'!
Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds![Heb 12:3]
To become weary and faint in your mind is to mentally give up the fight against Sin, the World and the Devil! It is to drop out of the Christian race, which only ends at our death or the coming of our Lord. Many begin the Christian life with great zeal and fervor. But with some it does not last. This is the reason that the scriptures abound with exhortations to endure till the end and solemnly warns those who fail to do so! “And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved! [Mat 10:22].
The Danger:
The question to be asked first of all is: “is such a thing possible for the Christian? Can a true blood bought child of God become weary and faint in his mind?” The answer is yes, or the scriptures would not warn against this evil. The Master admonished His disciples that men ought always to pray and not to faint! In fact He commends the Church at Ephesus for having laboured for his Name and not fainted [Rev 2:3]. And again the Apostle charges the Galatians to be not weary in well doing, for in due season they shall reap if they faint not! [Gal 6:9].
The Christian life does not get any easier as we grow older. In fact the fire only gets all the more hotter. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, is the Apostles admonition. [1Pet 4:12]. Again – “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? [Jer 12;5]
The fire is to try the genuineness of your faith. All those who do not have the faith of God’s elect, not only become weary and faint; but they never recover and come back! [see 2Tim 4:10]. But not so with His elect, for Christ is the author and finisher of their Faith! Yes, they too grow weary and faint many a time, but He sustains them by giving them power and increasing their strength! [see Isa 40:29-31].
The Remedy:
How shall we guard against this great danger? Yes it greatly helps to consider the lives of other believers of the past and meditate on how they persevered in spite of so many hardships. In fact the Apostle says, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. [1Cor 10:11].
But here when he exhorts them to guard against becoming weary and faint in their minds he does not point them to any Patriarch or Prophet, but to the Lord Jesus! “For consider Him” he says. And beloved, this is indeed the key and the remedy for weary and fainting minds. i.e. a contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ! How infinitely important is the knowledge of this truth in reference to our Lord! Let us with the Apostle count all things loss for this excellent knowledge [Phil 3:8], for it is more precious than rubies, and all things that can be desired cannot be compared to it. [Prov 3;13-15].
“Consider Him who endured”. Recollect His relation to God and His relation to you. Remember He was the ‘only begotten’ and ‘well beloved Son of God’. If He suffered, should you a sinner, wonder that you suffer, or murmur when you suffer? Remember that He is your Lord and teacher; and is it not enough that His disciple be as His teacher, and the servant as his Lord? Remember that His sufferings were for you, and will you shrink to suffer for Him?
Consider not only Him who suffered, but what he suffered. Think how numerous, how varied, how severe, how complicated, how uninterrupted and how prolonged were His sufferings? What are your sufferings in comparison of His? And consider not only what He suffered; think of the temper in which He suffered – how meek in reference to men, how submissive in reference to God! And by this consideration learn not to allow your sufferings to produce, on the one hand, resentment towards men, nor, on the other, discontentment towards God! And especially, let the thought, that He endured all this – that not withstanding all this, He stood steadily to His purpose of saving you, at whatever price – excite in you an invincible resolution also to endure, - to allow no affliction to shake your attachment to Him; but, as every reproach, and insult, and injury but made Him the more set His face as a flint, let your afflictions but rouse into more energetic vigour all the principles of Christian obedience; and knowing that He suffered for you, -and knowing how well He deserves that you suffer for Him, and has in suffering for you set you an example, -that you should follow His steps, - instead of being weary and faint in your minds, let tribulation work perseverance, and perseverance experience, and experience hope!
For if these things be in you and abound, you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, but an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! [2Pet 1:8-11].
To become weary and faint in your mind is to mentally give up the fight against Sin, the World and the Devil! It is to drop out of the Christian race, which only ends at our death or the coming of our Lord. Many begin the Christian life with great zeal and fervor. But with some it does not last. This is the reason that the scriptures abound with exhortations to endure till the end and solemnly warns those who fail to do so! “And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved! [Mat 10:22].
The Danger:
The question to be asked first of all is: “is such a thing possible for the Christian? Can a true blood bought child of God become weary and faint in his mind?” The answer is yes, or the scriptures would not warn against this evil. The Master admonished His disciples that men ought always to pray and not to faint! In fact He commends the Church at Ephesus for having laboured for his Name and not fainted [Rev 2:3]. And again the Apostle charges the Galatians to be not weary in well doing, for in due season they shall reap if they faint not! [Gal 6:9].
The Christian life does not get any easier as we grow older. In fact the fire only gets all the more hotter. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, is the Apostles admonition. [1Pet 4:12]. Again – “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? [Jer 12;5]
The fire is to try the genuineness of your faith. All those who do not have the faith of God’s elect, not only become weary and faint; but they never recover and come back! [see 2Tim 4:10]. But not so with His elect, for Christ is the author and finisher of their Faith! Yes, they too grow weary and faint many a time, but He sustains them by giving them power and increasing their strength! [see Isa 40:29-31].
The Remedy:
How shall we guard against this great danger? Yes it greatly helps to consider the lives of other believers of the past and meditate on how they persevered in spite of so many hardships. In fact the Apostle says, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. [1Cor 10:11].
But here when he exhorts them to guard against becoming weary and faint in their minds he does not point them to any Patriarch or Prophet, but to the Lord Jesus! “For consider Him” he says. And beloved, this is indeed the key and the remedy for weary and fainting minds. i.e. a contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ! How infinitely important is the knowledge of this truth in reference to our Lord! Let us with the Apostle count all things loss for this excellent knowledge [Phil 3:8], for it is more precious than rubies, and all things that can be desired cannot be compared to it. [Prov 3;13-15].
“Consider Him who endured”. Recollect His relation to God and His relation to you. Remember He was the ‘only begotten’ and ‘well beloved Son of God’. If He suffered, should you a sinner, wonder that you suffer, or murmur when you suffer? Remember that He is your Lord and teacher; and is it not enough that His disciple be as His teacher, and the servant as his Lord? Remember that His sufferings were for you, and will you shrink to suffer for Him?
Consider not only Him who suffered, but what he suffered. Think how numerous, how varied, how severe, how complicated, how uninterrupted and how prolonged were His sufferings? What are your sufferings in comparison of His? And consider not only what He suffered; think of the temper in which He suffered – how meek in reference to men, how submissive in reference to God! And by this consideration learn not to allow your sufferings to produce, on the one hand, resentment towards men, nor, on the other, discontentment towards God! And especially, let the thought, that He endured all this – that not withstanding all this, He stood steadily to His purpose of saving you, at whatever price – excite in you an invincible resolution also to endure, - to allow no affliction to shake your attachment to Him; but, as every reproach, and insult, and injury but made Him the more set His face as a flint, let your afflictions but rouse into more energetic vigour all the principles of Christian obedience; and knowing that He suffered for you, -and knowing how well He deserves that you suffer for Him, and has in suffering for you set you an example, -that you should follow His steps, - instead of being weary and faint in your minds, let tribulation work perseverance, and perseverance experience, and experience hope!
For if these things be in you and abound, you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, but an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! [2Pet 1:8-11].
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