Have you ever been in a fish belly place? It is a place where discouraging events stream in an endless pattern and you see no probable way out of your circumstances.

Your spirit is fainting.

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord…” (Jonah 2:7)

Back in the 1960’s my missionary grandfather, J.D. Clark, gave this message about “fish belly days” in a radio broadcast in Ecuador.

What to do When Fainting

Many times as Christians and followers of the Lord, He permits us to enter into discouraging situations to test our faith, but we must not give up in despair.

Like Jonah in the belly of the great fish, we must turn to God when our soul is fainting within us. As we conform to His will, we will find deliverance.

A very spiritual author writes, “What can you do when you are about to faint physically? You can’t DO anything! In your weakness you must fall upon the shoulders of some strong loved ones, lean hard, and rest until your strength returns.

The very same thing is true when you are tempted to faint spiritually under adversity. Then the Lord’s message to us is, “Be still and know that I am God.”

The famous missionary of a past generation, Dr. Hudson Taylor, was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he said to a dear friend, ‘I am so weak that I cannot work or read my Bible, and I can hardly pray. I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child AND TRUST.’

That is all the Heavenly Father asks of you when you grow weary in the fierce fires of affliction. Our Lord God admonishes us, saying…

“…at all times (you) should pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)

Someone has also said: “A man is a fool who leans on the arms of flesh when he can be supported by the arm of Omnipotence.”