Sometimes it’s all too easy to get bogged down, overwhelmed, and discouraged by our circumstances. We may find our self, if not careful, deeply involved in our own pity-party. Discouragement—such a powerful tool of our enemy! It so easily swallows us, robbing us of hope and distracting us from our purpose. Our focus, amidst the discouragement, begins to shift until we become totally fixated on our insignificant smallness in contrast to our mounting obstacle of circumstances. And this is exactly what the enemy hopes for. But, as always, the enemy uses a twisted truth (thus a lie) as bate on his hook when hoping to lure us into despair. The truth is—we are much smaller than many of life’s challenges. Inept at handling so many crises on our own. But the truth doesn’t stop there, unless the only voice we hear is the enemy speaking through discouragement.
The truth is—life is bigger than we. Period! But, we are not in this alone! We are not cast off, allowed to struggle unavailingly on our own. We have an awesome God! Psalm brings this into focus.
Ps 61:2-3
2 From the end of the earth will I cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed and fainting; lead me to the rock that is higher than I [yes, a rock that is too high for me].
3 For You have been a shelter and a refuge for me, a strong tower against the adversary.
AMP
This was the little nugget God handed me this morning after a day of pity-party throwing yesterday. I needed just such redirection! There are times when life seems too big--like an ocean tide that swells and comes crashing down upon us. The sand grabbing frantically at our feet—pulling us and knocking us down. We are swept away. We cough and sputter with mouthfuls of water, gasping for air. On our own we would surely drown. Enter our Mighty God!
How comforting to know that during these times, He is our sheltering rock. He lifts and places us high above our stormy situations. He places us securely on the rock. A solid place. A firm foundation. He becomes our shelter, our refuge, our strong tower in which we find peace and hope. He shelters us from our adversary, who sometimes comes disguised as overly large doses of discouragement and self-pity.
If only Satan could keep us here—we would remain defeated, he being our victor. And, oh, how he tries! But, God always makes a way of escape. And, if we find our self feeling too weary and overwhelmed to stand or fight the waves, we only need to call out to Him. When we realize we have no strength to climb into that safe place of shelter from the storm, He has promised to ‘lead [us] to the rock that is higher than [we]’.
In our own strength we fail. Looking to Him and leaning into His strength, He is able to lift us above the tossing waves to a place that is above ourselves, ‘yes, a rock that is too high for me’. A place our spirit can find rest that is only obtainable with the intervention of our very personal God. We could never arrive here on our own! But, God is our Rescuer and Refuge!
How thankful I am today of this simple reminder in Psalm 61 that when I feel like a failure, stuck in my dead-end pity-party, overwhelmed with the demands of life, I only really need to stop and call on Jesus. Whatever I need to accomplish that is impossible in my own strength, I can and will accomplish in His. He is able to place my spirit in the quiet refuge under the Father’s wing, allowing me to surrender my weaknesses unto Him until I am emptied and able to receive His power! And, it is there, high on the rock of His strength, that the enemy is defeated and my victory is won!
