Stagger Not

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” (Ro 4:20-21 AV)

That word ‘staggered’ has captivated my attention.  The Greek word means, “to separate one’s self in a hostile spirit, to oppose, strive with, dispute, contend; to be at variance with one’s self, hesitate, doubt .”  It has the understanding of separating two opposing sides for the sake of having an opposing side.  This is illustrated well by Elijah and the people concerning Baal.  “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” (1Ki 18:21 AV)  When one staggers, he is not convinced of either argument and becomes non-committal to any position.  He waivers between two opposing positions because he sees either one as a risk.  Unbelief is the cause.  Unbelief and being fully persuaded are polar opposites.  The context above is faith for righteousness.  Abraham is the subject.  He believed in God to provide seed by which a great nation would come.  That faith was tested on the mount as Abraham laid Isaac upon an altar of sacrifice.  When God saw that Abraham believed, He looked upon Abraham as righteous.  This challenge is not limited to salvation.  It is true of every promise given to the saints of God.  Whatever it is that God has promised, staggering is not an option.  We must be fully persuaded or the promise cannot come to pass.

There comes a time when we must fully commit.  We cannot stay put.  To stay put is more hazardous than committing because one way or another, the decision will make itself.  When I think of staggering, I think of wintertime and walking on the ice.  Imagine you were stuck on an iceberg floating in the ocean.  You are heading south, so the iceberg is slowly melting and getting a bit smaller with each passing hour.  Because of the many icebergs surrounding you, a boat passing by cannot get directly to you.  The pilot of the boat tells you to jump and swim.  You have a choice.  You can either trust the berg to stay in one piece until it reaches land, or you can trust the captain of the boat to rescue you.  Either choice isn’t perfect.  Then comes along a coastguard helicopter.  They lower a rope.  No one can ascend to help you attach the rope so you will have to trust the rope will work and that it is attached securely to the chopper.  There is no winch which means you will be flying through the air until you reach land.  Again, not a perfect solution.  But an answer nonetheless.  There are three options.  Each has its risk.  The first may mean recovery from hypothermia.  The third might mean you fall out of the harness and into the ocean.  But staying on the berg is definitely the greatest risk of all.  It is like someone walking on the ice that pits one foot against the other rather than coordinating their feet to work together.  Scooting is the best way to traverse ice.  If not, one foot can go one way and the other in an opposite direction.  You would stagger.

God is able and capable of all our trials and challenges of life.  They will not be easy.  There is ice in the way and He is not going to take the ice away.  We have to learn to trust Him and be fully persuaded.  Not just for our souls; which is the easier thing to do; but for our lives in the here and now.  We must be fully persuaded that He knows what He is doing and that He has our best interests at heart.  If we are going through deep waters, we need to go through deep waters.  If we are suffering for our choices, we need to suffer for our choices.  If we are suffering persecution, we need to suffer persecution.  It is all part of His perfect plan.  We must be fully pursued.  There is very little as painful as when one leg goes one way and the other heads in the opposite direction.  Having suffered an injury when I fell down cement stairs, a cane was my best friend for several months.  Staggering always results in some type of injury.  This injury is part of the learning process.  It is part of learning to trust and the next time something comes about, we will be fully persuaded.  This is what Abraham did and set the example of faith that all the saints of God followed.  We must do the same.