Do you have some days in which you think that you just exist... that you are so tired and weary of life around you and what you are feeling and living seems so meaningless? Perhaps you are in a wilderness - the wilderness in which you feel lost. And lonely. And without hope.
Most, if not all, of us have been in that wilderness at some point in our lives. Times when we have given up hope for life changing. What has been, will always be. We feel hopeless, unable to change. It doesn't matter whether it is our choices in life - we do this or that; it doesn't matter if we think this or that; nothing seems to matter or make a difference anymore. So many of us fall into that 'trance' at some point in our lives. I know I have been there a few times.
And when one goes there to live, in that wilderness pit, it once again becomes a choice. Do you decorate the wilderness pit, or do you decide you don't like to be there; you don't want to be there; and you make the determination that no matter what, you are coming out of the wilderness pit into Hope again. So much of life is a result of our choices, whether we see it that way - or declare 'the luck of the draw' or 'dumb luck'. It isn't luck to be sad, to be lonely and without hope. God has not deserted you.
Hopefully you begin to look at your life to determine 'what is it that has brought this about?' What has changed my attitude to be so negative? What has caused me to be so critical and fault-finding about everything in life? What is causing me to feel - and to act this way? What has made me so angry inside that I have pushed away everything and everyone that I love? So many questions. Have you asked them of yourself at any time?
I have. I go through those times periodically as I know others do. Life isn't easy sometimes. People say things that hurt you and it causes you to retreat into your shell - or you get angry and critical and do all you can to put them down.... but the problem with either one of those 'solutions', is that it doesn't make you feel any better.
Do you want to feel better? Or even better than that... as Jesus says to us... "do you want to be healed?" What do we want Jesus to do to make us feel better?
Did you ever stop to think that the first step in feeling better is acknowleding the pain? We can only ignore it for so long. If the hurt we have received from others is held on to, soon the mental pain and anguish we felt becomes a physical pain... for which there is no diagnosis. Our anger withheld is killing us, little by little. Our hurt we hold inside of us, is causing breakdown of the body that gives us life. I've seen people whose lives have become painful and full of wilderness-pit living... because they refuse to let go of that hurt, that anger, that pain they have withheld over the years. They aren't any fun to be with, or even around them, for all they can talk about is their physical pain, their anger of the past, their path in the wilderness-pit.
Things that give you thought... or cause you just to skim over the words. I don't know why all that came to me this morning as I sat down to write this. I'm not in physical pain, I don't believe I'm in the wilderness-pit; but someone needed to hear they can have hope this morning.
Jesus has the life-rope to help you up out of the wilderness-pit. He is extending it to you.... will you grab hold of it and allow Him to pull you out? Don't despair if you lose your grip; reach out again and again, and you will find the rope always there for you to pull yourself out. Jesus will extend and help you, but you have to make the choice to get out. Will you? Your Hope is Jesus Christ; He alone can save you. Not your spouse, not your preacher, not your friend. Only Jesus is your Hope to life.
'My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.'
Stop sinking, and grab hold of the Rock, Jesus Christ.
Blessings!
