Proverbs 24:10, “If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.” (NLT)
“If you are slack (careless) in the day of distress, your strength is limited.” (AMP)
“If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” (NIV)
Strength that is only useful for good conditions is not strength. Strength is proved under pressure.
If you buy a length of rope it will typically have a safe working load rating. That load rating is not a random number. In the testing phase the strength of the rope is discovered through breaking it. They put each end of the rope on a hydraulic machine that as it pulls the two ends, gauges how many pounds it takes to break the structural integrity of the fibers. Only by seeing what it takes to break the rope can you discover what it can handle.
1 Peter 1:6-7 says,
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Trials prove that your faith is genuine. Trials test your resolve and commitment. To persevere through trials proves that you have commitment. Commitment is the reason why you persevere.
James 1:2-4 says,
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
The testing of your faith produces perseverance. Trials create resistance, therefore to keep moving forward you need perseverance – persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Perseverance increases your resolve, because you most grip more firmly that which you are working to achieve. To grip more firmly means you can’t carry as much baggage as before. This refining process sheds off the unnecessary so that only the necessary remains. You come through on the other side, leaner, stronger, more disciplined, focused, full of hope and peace. This is the process of becoming strong, complete where you lack no good thing.
Be strong under pressure.