Scripture
They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits’ end.
~Psalm 107:27, NLT
Quote
Desperation is better than despair.
~Samuel Chadwick
I have blogged on this verse more than once: I recall one title, “Spending the night at Wit’s End.” Most of us have spent several days and nights at wit’s end. Lord willing, I will be preaching this Sunday on the woman with an issue of blood; She approached Jesus in quiet desperation. Psalm of 107 details a group of sailors caught in a storm. I suppose we see the power of God most graphically in the elements of nature. The ship these sailors are on is bobbing up and down like a cork as they are being toss to and fro by the powerful wind and waves. These sailors are struggling just to stay on board the ship and they have exhausted all their strength and resources to no avail: they are at wit’s end. They do not know what else to do; they have done all that they could think of and it wasn’t enough. They are at the end of their rope and as the old saying goes, “When you get to the end of your rope, tie and knot and hang on.”
They were in a desperate situation. The Bible is filled with desperate situations. Joseph was in a desperate situation: first in the pit when he begged his brothers to let him live and then in a prison in Egypt. The Israelites were in a desperate situation in Egypt. They were slaves without resources or leadership. Then God moved them from one desperate situation to another: in the wilderness, there was no water, food or shelter. Most of the Psalms were inspired by desperate situations. All of the prophets preached during desperate times. Desperate days are the stepping stones into God’s wisdom and light. Desperation has inspired a lot of powerful prayers. Moses at the banks of the Red Sea and the apostles at pentecost. The great prayers of Asa, Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah were inspired by desperate situations. The great prayer by Nehemiah was inspired by desperation and of course, Jesus prayer in Gethsemane, came out of a desperate situation.
Doug’s brothers wanted me to listen to a Church of God preacher on YouTube which I did on the way home from Huntsville. I heard in his voice what I know others hear in my own, a sense of desperation. We desperately need the Spirit of God to move on the church. We desperately need REVIVAL. I cannot lie, I live at Wit’s End. I live with the constant longing to see God’s glory, to see His awesome power at work in the church. My greatest fear is that we can explain everything that is going on. I am tired of the smoke and mirrors. I long for the Fire of heaven to fall and consume all the bull.
I listened to a John MacArthur sermon yesterday: he says that we are already in the middle of judgment. The sexual perversion of our day is proof of the pudding. I read in Psalms 81 just a few days ago this verse that Paul uses in Romans 1, “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.” The Psalmist was talking about the Israelites but Romans one is about us. Romans 1:24, So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. We are already there MacArthur says…God has given us over to our own sin and devices.
PTL, the storms have passed. The moon was shinning brightly as I came to the study this morning. If I am not mistaken, today in Joe David’s forty fifth birthday. He was born on America’s 200th birthday, 1976.
I’m not one to notice things in the house. If you move my bed or recliner, I might notice. June had cleaned off a kitchen counter top making room for my new ice maker [early Father’s Day present] and Chloe came by. She walked through the kitchen and said immediately, “It seems that there was something on this counter top that is missing.” If June hangs a new picture or takes one down, Chloe will catch it.