Psalm 73:23-25 “Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You.”
Human beings are very interesting; we have emotions that take us places we ought not to go; we have ups and downs and we have good days and bad days, but sometimes life throws us a curve ball that we never saw coming, and it is during those times that we can fall into despair. Every single one of us will come to a place in our lives where we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, or we just received devastating news of an illness of ourselves or a loved one or even worse, the tragic death of someone we love, a friend, a spouse or a child. The word despair is defined in the dictionary as an “utter loss of hope.” We may look at the situation we are in and become so discouraged and despondent because we realize there is absolutely nothing we can do, we are helpless to fix, save and rescue anyone, including ourselves. Our circumstances are beyond our control and the only thing we can do is come to the end of ourselves, our own reliance, and understand that there is One who sees you. Jesus promises us that He is “always with you, that He holds you in His right hand, that He will guide you and counsel you,” and then after it is all done, He will use all of it, every bit of it, to His glory.
This scripture goes on to say, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26.) The word strength is defined as “having a capacity for exertion or endurance and the power of resisting attack.” The enemy of our souls wants us to be discouraged and despondent; he loves it when we are in the depths of despair because in the midst of our agony and hopelessness, he will always kick us when we are down because it is his desire for us to stay stuck in our excruciating circumstances. But that is not what our Savior wants for us; He promises us that our “sorrow will be turned into joy,” (John 16:20) and that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5.)
Every single one of us will endure hardships and tribulation; we all will come to a place in our lives where it seems like there is no hope, that everyone around us has let us down, that there is no one on the face of the earth who can understand or comprehend what we are going through; there will be instances in our lives where we will have times of despair caused by real events that we will be unable to lift ourselves out of, but the Lord does not want us to stay stuck there. He says to us in Matthew 26:46 to “Rise, let us be going.” Our flesh is weak and Christ is intimately acquainted with the feelings of human infirmities; He knows what it is like to be betrayed and yet He was willing to “bear the sins of many” and voluntarily surrender His will to the will of the Father in all things. There is no conflict between divine will and our desires. Yes, we want things to be different, we want things to be easy, but the glory that was revealed by Jesus’ death on the cross forever has given us a hope, a trust, a reliance, a knowledge and an expectation of the fulfillment of His glory.
– Melody
