When life knocks you down, ask God for resilience

“We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (TLB)

My dad taught me to get back in the saddle. And he wasn’t speaking metaphorically.

First, this meant putting my boot into the stirrup, grabbing the saddle horn, and scrambling up and onto a saddle that was tightly cinched to the back of a contrary horse. The horse had one thing in mind—throwing me as high as possible into the air, after which I would hit the ground with a loud, agonizing thud.

Before the dust settled, Dad would say, “Don’t give up, son. Keep trying.”

I don’t recall Dad telling me that this repeated exercise would teach me resilience. But it did, one way or another. And those lessons have stuck with me through life—especially through times of failure and disappointment.

The prophet. Micah, probably never experienced a bucking horse throwing him to the ground. No, he only had hostile world empires likes Assyria and Babylon to deal with. (A wild bronc might have looked good to him, by comparison.) As Micah prophesied, these empires would swoop down on Samaria—and then Jerusalem—with brute force and iron fists.

But Micah was resilient.

“Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;

When I fall, I will arise;

When I sit in darkness,

The Lord will be a light to me.” Micah 7:8 (NKJV)

Resilience. I love that word. The dictionary calls it “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”

The best examples of resilience I have seen through the years have been the lives of men and women in countries under Marxist, communist, or other totalitarian regimes who have never known the freedoms that I enjoy. Whatever label one places on it, there are two things to remember: It is dreadfully difficult to live under the heavy fist of political or military oppression. There is a cleansing effect in the Church.

Why would I make statements like that, you ask? Because people will not suffer for what they do not believe.

If people are willing to suffer for their Christian faith, you can trust them to work and worship beside you.

On one occasion in Asia, I remember listening to a young woman serving in a particularly antagonistic area. Some of the authorities in those districts had been utterly ruthless in their efforts to stamp out Christianity and Christians.

The young woman described being arrested, beaten, and tortured for her faith in Christ before they released her. Yet watching her face as she spoke, she seemed to be positively beaming with her joy to suffer for Jesus. Even so, she was determined to continue traveling from village to village, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus.

Resilience describes a person who gets back to their feet after being knocked down or thrown down by life’s unsympathetic fury.

I will never forget my dad’s voice after the horse had catapulted me for the umpteenth time. As the dust settled, I groaned from having the wind knocked out of me.

I would have given up, but I heard my dad’s voice, “Don’t give up, son. Try it again.”

Rolling to my knees, I spit the grit out of my mouth, got up, and climbed into the saddle again. It was his voice and his presence in those moments that kept me going.

God’s spirit and his Word are with you right now to help you up and give you strength. Please listen to him, “for he promised you,”

“I will never leave you, never! And I will not loosen my grip on your life!” Hebrews 13:5 (TPT)