Have you ever been to that place that everyone dreads and seeks to avoid? I’m speaking of coming to the complete end of yourself. It’s sometimes called “wit's end,” “the end of the rope,” “hitting bottom,” or “hanging by a thread.” David called it “the valley of the shadow of death.” It’s a place of utter desperation in which our own personal sufficiency isn’t quite enough.
The good/bad news, however, is that God loves it when we are at that place. I don’t mean to say that God is maliciously enjoying our suffering. Rather, I believe God’s heart breaks when we are there, but he also knows how much we need it.
The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to be there. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul says:
"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death."
Now listen to what Paul is saying here. They had come to the end of their rope. It was the end. They “despaired of life itself.” Paul, the Apostle no less, had come to that dark valley of death that the Psalmist writes about. But it was not a meaningless circumstance orchestrated by a vicious God. Paul knew that God had a purpose. He finishes out verse 9 by saying, “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
Paul knew that God needed them to come to that extremely difficult place of despair. Why? So that they we rely on the God who raises the dead! So that they would cease relying on their own assets and begin to rely on the God who is able to do the impossible … even raise the dead.
Many of us are, have been, and will be at that place of hopelessness and desolation, but may we through these excruciating times rely on the God who raises the dead.
