The Spirit of A Man...

Pro 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?


When I read this I was instantly struck by it's truth.


Why do some people overcome when others succumb to all trying situations in life? People will tell you it's the difference between their attitudes. They'll go further and say how courageous a dead person was because of their attitude as they dealt with their terminal illness. They'll say that Soandso died valiantly, fighting the good fight. However not everyone fights that good fight courageously. Some go kicking and screaming, miserable and totally wretched as they move through life's upsets - large and small, serious and non-serious, life-threatening and non-life-threatening.


Attitude- spirit of a man.


The spirit of a man can thrive or be wounded. You know what I'm talking about. We see wounded spirits all the time, we might even have a wounded spirit ourselves. It's the aching of the soul that feels the depth of pain physically or emotionally either, and despair sets in. Depression overtakes the spirit dragging it down into darkness not wanting any light to shine upon it because the despair shouts out the pain to everyone searching endlessly for sympathy, for understanding.


Now lest someone say that I don't understand at all, that depression is an illness that a person can't help, let me reply that I know that the complexity of the brain and it's chemical make-up are astounding and confounding and yes, depression can be an illness. That's what I'm talking about really- illnesses whether chronic or not, whether life-threatening or not, the spirit of a man plays a part in it all. A spirit can be wounded without any fault of a person, or through plenty of fault.


'A wounded spirit who can bear?' I feel for those who suffer medical depression because their wounded spirit is that much more in pain. Truly clinging by faith to our Lord's promise of life everlasting in Him is the saving grace when a wounded spirit is so crushed the infirmities of life seem overwhelming. To those whose spirit sustains them, how marvelous! Their attitude - their outlook on life- their ability to see beyond their infirmity is amazing and a blessing.


There are numerous sayings people hear all the time about life and the attitude we should possess throughout it.

Buck up.
Stick it out.
Be strong.
Chin up.
Look on the bright side.

You can add a lot to those few and yes, they are good advice that would be nice to be able to follow but sometimes we get discouraged and our spirit is wounded.


Is a wounded spirit good for us? NO. Not a single person will try to say depression or a damaged spirit is a good thing. More people are proven to heal better with a positive spirit, with a healthy, unwounded spirit.


When our spirit is wounded it needs to be repair by the greatest physician of all, God. He is the only one who can heal our wounded spirits and we need to cling to Him and find all our hope in HIM. Maybe our lives are falling apart with illness, finances, family, all of those, one of those and we're guaranteed not to get through life without things falling apart sooner or later, but we need to cling to the promise of a new life without all the anguish. Easy to say… I know.


I find it very interesting to read this though--


Pro 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?


We can be sustained through our infirmities. We can be. The spirit in us the is the spirit part of us that connects with our Savior and through His strength we can be made strong through our infirmities. If our spirit is wounded we need to pray, pray, pray to be healed in spirit and then we will be able to endure our infirmities no matter the form they take.


May God bless us and keep us in Him, our spirits in Him now and always. By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior now and forever. Amen.