Wisdom from the Word

"The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?"

Proverbs 18:14

Viktor Frankl was a prominent Jewish psychologist in Vienna during the 1930s. During the Holocaust, he and virtually all of his family members were rounded up and placed in concentration camps. One by one they perished at the hands of the Nazis. By the time the American army liberated the camp Frankl was in, the only surviving member of his family was a sister who had fled to Australia before the war started.

After the war, Frankl wrote a book about his experiences called Man’s Search for Meaning. He detailed the suffering he endured, but he also noted the vital importance of attitude and outlook to whether a person survived that awful experience. Though Frankl was not a believer, he had hit upon an important truth found in Scripture. The spirit of man—our inward thoughts and emotions—plays a vital role in our success or failure in life.

Certainly Daniel had a great deal about which he could have complained. His nation had been conquered, and he had been carried far from home and placed in a training program designed to destroy his allegiance to God. Rather than allow his circumstances to dictate his outlook, he kept his spirit right. On the night the handwriting appeared on the wall in Belshazzar’s palace, the queen described Daniel this way: “an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding… were found in the same Daniel” (Daniel 5:12).

We do not have to let what is going on around us dictate our inward thoughts and attitude. Paul wrote, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). As believers we have access to a source of strength and power that will allow our spirit to overcome injury and trouble.

Principle: 

Guard your spirit well—keep it in submission to the Holy Spirit, and life will not overcome you.