Desperate Times

“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it – the LORD is His name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.’” Jeremiah 33:2-3

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Sound familiar? When was the last time you found yourself desperate? I mean truly desperate? Like, if God doesn’t show up now and somehow provide for your need you just don’t know what you are going to do? I believe that times of desperation find us all, but the inevitability of those times doesn’t necessarily produce within us a desperation for the Lord.

Let me explain. In our “me” driven culture, we’ve grown far too self-sufficient, independent, and controlling in our lives that we have forgotten what it looks like to truly rely on God as if our lives depended upon it. Maybe I should just speak for myself. I know that I have, in my selfishness, sought to meet my own needs and take care of myself instead of leaning on the Lord. Then, when the heat of the difficulty rises, I find myself scrambling to work things out, desperate for answers and solutions. Instead, shouldn’t the attitude of my heart be one that defaults to relying on the Lord? Being more desperate for His presence that for my need to be met? Both in the good and the bad times, shouldn’t I be found “calling out to the LORD”?

My husband and I found ourselves in that place tonight. The stresses and pressures of life caught up to us, and we were desperate. At first, we resorted to the bad habit of worry and fear. And isn’t it so easy to? Make no mistake. You and I establish the bad habit of worry and fear by failing to remain in the Lord. We’re faced with something that seems beyond our control to fix, and we freak out. After realizing that our worry was getting us nowhere fast, we hit our knees. We cried out to the LORD, desperate for Him to show up in our need and provide. And He met us with His presence, with a fresh wave of His Spirit. He renewed our strength.

This is why He commands us to “call to Him”. Not to think about it, not to whisper it, but to cry out to the God of Heaven and Earth, the One who spoke everything you see into existence. The One who breathed life into your lungs is more than able to sustain you in your time of need. Call out to Him. Be desperate for Him. He promises to answer. And in that, we find hope.

I am praying for you today that you will have faith to call out to the LORD and believe that He is waiting to hear from you and ready to answer you. I’m praying for you that your capacity to trust in the LORD is increased beyond measure so that you readily and willing rely on Him to meet your every need.