You Are Weak

It may be that your worst point is that you feel very feeble.  You say, "I would not mind that persecution if I felt strong, but I am so weak."

Well now, always distinguish between feeling strong and being strong.  The person who feels strong is weak; the person who feels weak is strong.  Paul said, "When I am weak, then am I strong"
(2 Cor. 12:10).  David prayed, "Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I" (Psalms 142:6).

I am glad that there is some trouble in being a Christian, for it has become a very common thing to profess to be one.  If I am right, it is going to become a much less common thing for a person to say, "I am a Christian."  There will come times when sharp lines will be drawn between the world and true believers.  Some of us will help to draw them if we can.  The problem is that many people bear the Christian name but they act like worldlings and love the amusements and the follies of the world. 

It is time for a division in the house of the Lord in which those for Christ go into one camp and those against Christ go into the other camp.  We have been mixed together too long.

I, for one, say, "May the day soon come when every Christian will have to run the gauntlet!"  It will be a good thing for genuine believers.  It will just blow some of the chaff away from the wheat.  We will have all the purer gold when the fire gets hot and the crucible is put into it, for then the dross will be separated from the precious metal.

Be courageous, my fellow believer.  If you are now in the cave, the Lord will bring you out of it in His own good time.

(Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare)