Part 1
Both success and failure can bring us to the end of ourselves. Bold courage and paralyzing fear can accomplish the same results. These extremes can produce crises of faith and of confidence in our course of action. That these polar opposites can accomplish the same effect is a mystery of human nature.
We are made in the image of God and at the same time broken creatures made to return to the dust from whence we came. We are fragile. That is one reason these wildly divergent experiences can produce a similar result. Each situation exceeds our frail limitations.
Both success and failure can bring us to the end of ourselves. Bold courage and paralyzing fear can accomplish the same results. Click To TweetWe see each of these results in two biblical stories. One is the story of Elijah’s response to the great victory that God provided over the prophets of Baal. The rain fell. God answered his prayer, yet a threat from Jezebel afterward sent him running as far away as was humanly possible.
The other story is of Jacob’s return to his homeland, which he faced full of terror at his brother Esau’s coming revenge, a fierce anger that Jacob expected to rob him of children and wives and all he had accomplished over decades. Jacob had to wrestle all night with God himself, sustaining a lifelong limp as a result, so that he might proceed thoroughly cleansed of the deception that was his fallback tactic during young manhood.
The Lord must allow us to come to the end of ourselves before we can hear him in the quiet whisper and see him in the face of even our enemy our brother. Thundering triumph and utter physical ruin and terror – both will do equally well for accomplishing this necessary growth.
The Lord must allow us to come to the end of ourselves before we can hear him in the quiet whisper and see him in the face of even our enemy. Click To TweetWill we see God? Will we believe that he does all things well? Can we discern that he truly works to bring good even within the cancer, the death, the relocation, the victory, the flood, or the chronic debilitating illness that chisels us away one fleck of stone at a time?
This is why we must wrestle with him in the darkness with unhinged and broken bodies and minds, why, after our highest of highs, we must hide in terror within a cave in the farthest reaches of the earth, begging him to simply allow us to die.
This is why we must face down the false prophets raving with madness only to gain the victory and then to have our confidence snuffed out by another human being’s utterance.
We must see the true God for who he is.
He is and always will be supreme over all of these moments. He is more authentic than what we see with our eyes and feel upon our skin. His desire for us is all consuming, and for us he allowed himself to suffer separation within his own unity, utter humiliation, and the worst agony devised by humankind.
This is love we cannot understand. But we must catch a glimmer.
These glimpses can only happen when we are at the end of ourselves, when we’ve surpassed all we can comprehend or accomplish. Only then can we spy him there patiently waiting with his eye keen upon us and his arms open wide.
Do you see him there?
Click on me to enjoy my faith-filled fiction
Faith, trust, and surrender. Yes, I do want to see His glimmer. I must continually get out of my own way, and stop looking at me and instead looking a myself or others for the explanations. And receive this gift of His absolute supremacy!
Getting out of our own way – a great way to put this! Thanks for commenting, Lynn!
Great read. I love the thought, We must come to the end of ourselves to hear Him. This is so true. We see so many things as idols in our lives and they block us from hearing and seeing Christ.
Thanks for your comment, Yvonne!
Powerful “wow” post, Melinda. Love both those Bible stories and how it relates to each of us. Relate to both tweets but this one is great. “Both success and failure can bring us to the end of ourselves. Bold courage and paralyzing fear can accomplish the same results.” Amen!
Thank you, Karen. It’s amazing to me how the best and most useful lessons we ever learn are the ones we would never choose, had we been given the choice.
God is with us always, in joyful times and in sorrow. Remembering He is there and we can always go to Him is truly a blessing and comfort
For sure! So often we base our responses on our feelings rather than on the fact of his presence.
I can so relate to this position of coming to the end of myself. And yes, God is so beautiful from this posture of humility. I experience more victory in my walk with Jesus in these fruitful yet hard times of life. Your post came at a good time. Needed every word! Thank you!
I’m glad it was encouraging to you! These places grow us so much, and the Lord often puts us there for exactly those reasons. I wouldn’t choose most of the things I’ve suffered through, but God has used every single one for my growth and my good. His promises and his presence undergird us. God bless you in your current struggle!
This is so powerful Melinda. The way that God can reveal Himself in extremes and get the same message across just shows us a small glimpse of who He is and what He can do. I like the thundering triumphs better, but something fear and complete silence is essential for my survival.
So true! And like the Potter that he is, he patiently and lovingly gives us exactly what we need, whether we know it yet or not. He’s a good, good God!
Thank you for these deep insights into ways we meet with God. I have seen miracles where I was astounded and speechless at God’s greatness, left asking myself if He could really be this amazing. I have also groveled in depths of sorrow where I was once again speechless before Him, but this time with only tears and moans. And you are right, He was there in each place. Amazingly God cuts through it all with truth, grace and a sort of wild beauty.
Yes! Beautifully expressed! You’re so right, Melissa. He’s not a tame lion in any way, shape, or form, but he sure is glorious!
I’m totally feeling this right now. I feel like I’ve swung back and forth on that pendulum without landing in the middle yet. However, by getting in His word, I am getting closer.
His Word held in our hands and in our hearts is our anchor. He is a God who speaks to us.
Getting into the Lord’s Word is the key. That’s it. From there, he guides and leads you. We all swing like pendulums, but the closer we adhere to the Word, the closer we get to our Lord. Thanks for stopping by, Jessie. God bless you!
In my experience, yes, both times of courage and victory and times of defeat and desperation have produced the greatest spiritual growth. In times of victory, I have seen his hand at work and awesome power propelling me forward. In times of struggle, I have been reminded of my utter need for Him. Through tears and desperate please He has led me through the storms. Thanks for so eloquently outlining this for us.
Thanks for stopping by, Luisa. Struggles and hardship, defeat or victory, make us strong, no matter the outcome, like those Proverbs 31 women you wrote about today.
Dear Melinda, thank you for sharing this powerful post. I am once again speechless as I read this, as the profound truth you share here is achingly accurate. I pray that I will continue to grow in my faith and humility before a God who is so great and vast and deep and wide. For all too soon I will return to the dust of the earth from whence I came, but for the blood of Christ covering me for all of eternity. God bless you and your ministry of words!
God undertakes our refining, thank God, because we wouldn’t choose any of it. BUT, he loves us, so he works in our lives to produce growth. Even when our responses are the opposite of what he desires, he works to turn us around and head us the other way. Part of the work of a Potter is the pulverize the clay, throwing it back on the wheel when it needs more work. He knows when the vessel has reached the shape he desires. He’s the Master Artist.
I love to contemplate the goodness of God. Thanks for a thought provoking read.
Thanks for stopping by, Beth.
Coming to the end of myself and seeking Him.
Yes, Donna. That’s how it seems to work usually.
Dear Melinda!
It was encouraging reading about the two opposites in this first part of your blog post series.
You wrote:
“The Lord must allow us to come to the end of ourselves before we can hear him in the quiet whisper . . . ”
That’s a good point. Most of the time we’re not in a position where we are ready to listen, we just wait for the other part to be finish taking so we can continue talking 🙂
You are touching a topic in this blog posts about us not being able to grasp His greatness. I agree with you on that. It’s something many great Christian thinkers have written about.
I’m not seeing Him most of the time – but I seek comfort in the idea that he sees me regardless of how I feel about Him.
With love!
Edna Davidsen
Thank you for your beautiful response, Edna! The hard times teach us so much, and they’re so essential for our spiritual growth and our continuing recognition of the vastness of our omniscient God as we strive all our lives to know him even better.
Yes they are. I have always learned most in times of trouble. When life gets too easy it’s easy to become superficial.
That’s so true, Edna! It really is.
Very inspiring and touching article. It can be scary to think of going to “the end of ourselves”, but knowing that’s where we find Him combats that fear.
I do see him there. And I’m never letting go!
Thank you for that comment, Jamie! He is there. Yes, he is. That’s where we find him. Therefore, coming to the end of ourselves are THE essential moments and experiences of our lives.
Melinda, I love this. I read it the other night and felt that I wasn’t clearheaded (it was way past my bedtime) to comment, and now I’ve read it again and I really appreciate your points. It’s always driven me crazy, how Elijah was so bold and brave and so cowardly in the same day. He had such strong faith in one moment, and in the next he’d forgotten how powerful God was! But, he needed to come to the end of Himself to really experience what God had in store for him. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.
Brianna, I’m always grateful to the Lord that he revealed all the failings and weaknesses of his prophets, priests, patriarchs, apostles, and disciples. There isn’t a perfect one among them. Only Jesus can claim that. Elijah’s failings are our failings. During trial, we can swing wildly from trust to fear to doubt. When we’re in hard times, we learn so much about God’s grace and mercy from watching him deal with them. And, then, we recognize that he is equally merciful with us. Thank you for commenting when you weren’t groggy. 🙂 God bless you, sister!
Hey…..thanks for this post. Whilst i agree that bold courage and paralyzing fear CAN accomplish the same results (for instance they can both get you killed!) the likelyhood that they WILL produce the same results is very slight. Paralyzing fear leaves you no options….you are unable to react. Bold courage gives you multiple options, choices, opportunities.
Unfortunately, bold courage and paralyzing fear do have the same results when dealing with victory or loss. The examples here are Jacob and Elijah.
The result of victory for Elijah was stark terror at the consequences that could now befall him because of the victory. The victory won, he took his eyes off the Lord (a common reaction to victory) and put them on Jezebel, ending up far away, running in terror to the tip of what is now Saudi Arabia. There, God asked him why he was there, and we don’t see Elijah accomplish many more things afterward. Victory, for him, was destructive. He put his eyes upon himself and on possible consequences, producing terror (also a common response after a hard fought spiritual battle).
Jacob had lived a life of deception and theft with his big brother Esau. After being away for many years, he now headed home. He had experienced great victory while with his father-in-law, coming home with livestock, wives, concubines, and many children. Yet, there he is in the dark of night, terrified of meeting his brother. He also took his eyes off the Lord’s proven provision and turned his focus onto himself, producing terror at going forward.
The Lord wants us to rely on him and not on ourselves. Usually, we know that during times of loss and fear. But during victory when we have exhibited great courage, we are at our most vulnerable, because we are sorely tempted to rely on ourselves, a fact that your response hints at. The Lord doesn’t want us to be self reliant, but to be dependent upon him. That is the true victory.