WATCHWORD:
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. Psalm 107:13
Ask, and it will be given to you. Luke 11:9
In everything give thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Meditation:
Wit’s End
Have you visited wit’s end? You know where that is. It’s where you finally realize God is not in what you’re doing and you made a mess of it, so in desperation, you pray. Or maybe you’ve reached the end of your rope. Reached the frayed end where there’s nothing below it and you realize that you have no other choice but to cry out “Jesus. I need help with me!”
You know it’s not cowardly to pray when you are at the end of your rope, when we’re at wits end. Sometimes it is the only way to get in touch with reality. As long as we are self-sufficient we don’t need to ask God for anything. We don’t even want Him involved, you know how high His standards can be. But when we feel discouraged, we tend to look inward to correct whatever is wrong or we strike out, almost blindly and without thought. It is only when we come around and know how powerless we are, that we are prepared to listen to Jesus and to do what he says. It’s a hard lesson and most of us have the scars to prove it.
Something very precious, something the Lord has blessed you with over time, is slipping away. You can’t seem to get your mind around it. Even the silence that surrounds it seems to add momentum to the fall, to the slide, ever faster, ever deeper. You may wonder is God removing the precious thing from your life to put Himself in their place?
How do you sort that out? John 15:7 – “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire” and it is here that, too often, we depart from what the Lord is offering us. What is your desire? To stop the pain? What do you want? Restoration? Am I asking within my own will, or am I asking “according to your will, Lord”? There’s a big difference.
In His teaching about prayer our Lord never once referred to unanswered prayer. He said God always answers prayer if our prayers are in the name of Jesus or according to His nature and His will. Too often I think we want our prayers answered right now, and we’re short on patience. We whine and complain before God, like a small child and yet not like a small child at all, for a child has trust. I think as we grow older we lose the audacity of a child, and slant our prayers toward me, me, me.
In his book If Ye Shall Ask, Oswald Chambers makes this statement: “Be honest before God and present your problems—the things you have come to your wits end about. Ask what you will, and Jesus Christ says your prayers will be answered. We can always tell if our will is in line with His by the way we live when we’re not praying.” How do we live when you’re not praying? Think about it and may the spirit of the Lord guide you.
Wits end? Walk up that hill. Follow the trail of Jesus’ blood. Take your bag of garbage, and lay it all at the foot of the Cross, where the ground is level and we can all approach. Lay that burden down, and let it go. The prayer mantra: Your will, not mine, Lord. Amen.
A Prayer to Draw Near to God:
Father, in the Name of Jesus, I thank You that You desire to spend time with me, and You have even called me Your friend. God, Your Word says if I draw near to You, You will draw near to me—and I want to be near to You. So, right now, in the Name of Jesus, I ask that You cause me to desire to draw near to You above everything else. Help me to have supernatural time-management abilities, help me to see clearly when I can set aside time to spend with You, and help me never to compromise that time.
Father, You said You are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You. I know that to be diligent, I need to pursue You with passion and perseverance. Help me to put Your Word first in every decision I make, to pray continually throughout the day, and to look for opportunities to listen to teachings that will build my knowledge and understanding of who You are and what You want for my life.
I thank You that as I do these things, You will guide me into all truth, show me things to come, and anoint the works of my hands. I praise You and thank You for these things. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
