“You can keep yourself from fainting” my doctor said when I complained about blacking out. With disbelief, I said “HOW?” He said “you can focus on something else and stop thinking about the black spots you see.” His words of advice were so good. The next time the black spots came, I remembered what he suggested. I didn’t give in to what I was seeing. I turned my attention to something else. I didn’t black out. I didn’t faint. I didn’t lose consciousness.
Spiritually speaking – when life is hard we want to give up. We are tired and lose our strength. We think it is just easier to faint, have a temporary loss of consciousness, than it is to keep going. It is when we are weary of the day in and day out grind of life the thoughts of “zoning out” seem to be the only possibility.
Galatians 6:9 says “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
We can see there are benefits to gain when we don’t let weariness increase. BUT HOW? How do we keep from fainting when life is so hard – when it would be so easy to just lose consciousness temporarily, figuratively speaking. How do we stop what feels so natural and unstoppable?
Galatians 6 speaks about the hard things people following Christ are responsible to do. These include:
- Help people who have sinned recover from their disobedience.
This sounds like helping a teenage or adult child who continues to mess up and needs constant encouragement and supervision to make the right decisions. It could be a family member who wants to do right but suffers from an addiction that is controlling them. - Bearing one another’s burdens.
This sounds like helping people who have ongoing sicknesses by providing them support. It could also be forgiving people over and over again who take you for granted and use you as their “door mat”.
We understand from Galatians 6, we are told not to faint, not to give up, not to grow weary. We are told the benefit and the reason we need to stay conscious, keep going, and not let tiredness take over. We know we will get the reward if we don’t give up and we keep going.
LIFE IS SO HARD. HOW DO I KEEP FROM FAINTING?
Do what the doctor said, focus on something else and stop thinking about what you’re seeing. When you are constantly focused on the “black spots”, the hard times of life, the burdens you bear for others and how you help others through the restoration process; you will get tired.
The writer of Galatians did not say never be weary. He said, do not grow weary. To grow means to get big, develop, or let live. Don’t let weariness become your focal point. Do not focus on the faint. Don’t focus on what’s making you feel tired or on how tired you are.
The way you keep from fainting is to turn your mind away from what you are seeing that is making you tired or weary. Allowing the prospect of giving up not to even enter your mind. When you are tempted to just “throw in the towel”, you instead “throw that thought out”.
Romans 8:6 – “to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
AND
Galatians 6:8 – “the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
When life is hard, the only way you can keep from fainting is to set your mind on the Spirit, plant seeds of the Spirit in your life, and focus on the things of God.
Let your focus be a Spiritual focus which is an end-result perspective.
Here are some practical focus options when you are weary, when all you can see is black spots, when the burdens of others is wearing on you, when the restoration process you are helping others through is all that’s in front of you, and when you just feel like temporarily losing consciousness:
- Spend some time thinking about the glory of Christ, being united with him, and picturing him being with you in this life that is so hard.
- Find a promise of God in the scripture. Memorize it. Pray it. Say it. Apply it to you.
- Love the Word of God, His Ways, and live them out day-by-day.
Instead of focusing on the hard times, focus on the Christ who loves you and gave Himself for you. Think about the God who doesn’t leave you alone, but comes to your help and aid in the most difficult times.
Be cheered up, don’t give up – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1.
Written By: Anne Gurley
