In Times of Despair - Conclusion

There often comes a time in a believer’s life when they succumb to the wiles of the enemy and sin.  This is to be a battle that we will constantly face, we see this in the Apostle Paul’s discourse on this in Romans 7:5-25.  This was nothing new to the Apostle, he was well aware that troublesome times lie ahead of all men.  Once sin takes place and we often try to deal with it on our own, it is not long before we find that we lack much in ourselves, we lack the power to overcome the onslaught of the enemy.  Without strength and without hope we finally turn to the Word of God and we do find that which we need.  The truth is, there is hope and that hope as always resides in Jesus Christ.  In our last post we began to draw a picture from the Old Testament when Moses led Israel out of the Egyptian bondage…

Moses did nothing more than which God had asked him to do.  His part was to trust, watch and believe.  To fully understand and experience God and His attributes so that we can fully and completely witness God in our lives we have to do the same, like Moses, we must trust, watch and believe.  We see this in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.”  To fully understand this, we must never take our eyes off of Christ.  We need to understand that God will always be God, but if we take our eyes off of Christ, He will not always be to God in our lives.  The enemy is on a mission to de-throne God in our hearts and replace Him with sub-god’s which are not really gods.  Many believers today have fallen victim to the enemy’s ploys as they spend countless hours in worship these sub-god’s such as self, job, sports, TV, movies, idolism and the list goes on and on even to the depts of porn, adultery, gossip, theft and other sins that destroy families as well as lives.  The enemy’s mission is to keep us off balance, he strives to keep us off kilter if you will so that God is not our main source of strength, hope and joy.

When we willingly take our eyes off of Christ we unreservedly walk into sin, we are all familiar with Matthew 14:22-32 where we read about the Apostle Peter when he walked on water, though once he took his eyes off of Christ he began to sin.  We too, will soon begin to sink into the mire of sin once we take our eyes off of Christ.  We often fight against the urgings of the Holy Spirit of God to turn away from our sin, but we refused and once again became ensnared in sin.  The first step in our way out of sin is to purposely turn our hearts, our minds and our eyes away from the sin and fix them firmly upon Christ.  Once again, our hope resides in our example of Moses’ and we must follow his lead.  We do so by climbing up on the rock (which is Christ), it soundly rests between depression’s army and the sea of anxiety, here we must lift up our hands to Almighty God, then surrender our heart back to Him, and we open our eyes to see the salvation of our God.  The Apostle Paul was well aware of this as he lays out for us the armor of God in Ephesians 4:10-24.  Here in this passage, among the articles of armor we find that the Apostle Paul issues three commands.  The first is to stand, the second is to pray and finally to watch which is not much different from Moses’ “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”  Both of these scriptural giants tell us to stand, both encourage us to watch and both emphasize that we are to believe.  The secret is in the fact that we do not have to DO as much as we have to BE.  Don’t try to do something, BE still, don’t try to hide, BE watchful and don’t doubt, BE prayerful, praying in belief.  The enemies’ goal in placing us in despair is to leave us like that rag-doll, weak and worn out without the strength to cry out for help.  But God is greater than our enemy and, in our weakness, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) and in our weariness, He is our rest (Matthew 11:28) and when we are to frail to cry out, He is our ever-present help (Psalm 46:1).

 We need not give into the enemy, we need only to surrender all to Christ.  The closer we remain to Christ the less likely that the enemy can gain a foothold of your heart and mind.  The more we surrender and keep our hearts surrendered to Christ the more we fall in love with Him and in turn the more we see how vigilant a watch that He keeps over us.  This reminds me of one of the old hymns that we used to sing in the church and I do miss and love the old hymns, the one comes to my mind at this time is called “All to Jesus I Surrender.”¹  The first verse and chorus are noted below:

    All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give;

    I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

    I surrender all, I surrender all.

    All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all

 When you are down and out, shaken and beaten down like that dog’s toy with no strength left of your own remember that He is there ready to help, ready to step in to do and be all that only He can be. “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (10) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  Learn to trust in and lean upon the strength and grace of our Lord Jesus, He will get us through each trial, He will always provide a way.  This He has already promised us in His word, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

 This message is not a cure all from despair but our goal is to provide you with direction to the right path out and encouraging you to take the first step in your way out.  It has been quoted of old saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”², make your first step count by taking a stand in Christ and firmly fix your heart and mind up Jesus.  The one true way out of despair will always reside in Jesus.

If you are struggling with despair, we do encourage you to seek help, you do not have to remain in the grasp of despair.  I do recommend that you reach out and talk to your pastor or the Soul Care ministry team in your church.  You do not have to lay down in the grasp of despair, there is help, and God will make a way through.  Trust Him and He will provide a way out of the depths of despair.

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1.      All to Jesus I Surrender - Lyrics: Judson W. Van de Venter (1855-1939) - Music: Winfield Scott Weeden (1847-1908)

2.      Lao Tzu Quotes, 6th century B.C – Great Quotes