(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

 

You’ve fallen in a pit so deep

Your life lays at your feet, a heap,

Failure felt, so raw, can’t speak

Your tears are crusted and you can’t weep.

 

No strength to even shout your rage

Life’s at an end with no new page,

Some useless actor shunted off your stage

Living death’s become your lifelong wage.

 

Where can you go from here too now?

Has defeat become your final bow?

Your cherished dreams of youth turned sour,

Is this the end, you face your final hour?

 

Gripped within, the crushing death of hope,

Can’t find breath as on your grief you choke.

A feeble silent plea escapes to GOD Who spoke,

To HIM Who roused the dead, the sleeping HE awoke.

 

Is there a chance that HE can pull you out,

Lift you from this pit of hell, raised in triumphant shout?

How can you muster a shred of hope, so crippled by your doubt,

When all you see is hopelessness and emptiness about?

 

HE knows as well as you do, you don’t deserve HIS grace,

Yet you hear HIS urgent voice say, “Child MY SON took your place,

I am the GOD who rescues, will you choose to seek MY face?

Just put your trust within MY SON – your sin did HE erase!”

 

“I am the GOD of hope, the LORD of each new day’s dawning,

I am The One who breathes HIS life on the ashes of your mourning.

It is I who lifts you up and transforms your defeat,

SON of GOD Alone, Whom your deepest need does meet!”

 

 

 

 

 thought for the journey…

Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.”

 

How sorely we need to learn to cling to The SON of GOD, to ‘present ourselves to HIM’, to yield to HIM, to abandon ourselves in surrender to HIM - don’t shut HIM out when you struggle, don’t try to ’soldier on’ yourself - instead, depend upon HIM, lean upon HIM, let HIM pour HIS strength into you!

For then our most difficult trials can become the source of our greatest blessings - intimacy with ALMIGHTY GOD and the inexpressible joy that only comes from HIS Presence, from throwing ourselves with total trust into HIS arms! Paul the Apostle learnt this lesson, and that is why he was able to say in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for CHRIST’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong!”

 

True failure is to shut The LORD out, to try to be ’strong enough’ all by ourselves, to be ’self’ sufficient and to cut ourselves off from HIS grace, HIS forgiveness & restoration - it is not that we stumble, for in truth we all do at times (as long as we aren’t using HIS grace as an excuse to wilfully sin); but it is to withdraw from HIM in our shame, self pity & sorrow, or in self righteousness (I’ll do it my way, on my terms, I’ll fix it by myself…). When we fail we should run with urgency into HIS embrace, confessing our failure & our desperate need of HIM - it is grave folly to think we don’t need HIM; for we need HIM every moment of every day, in our successes and in our failures, more than the oxygen we inhale!

 

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, HE is faithful & just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

HE is The GOD of second, third, fourth, fifth …. chances. We need HIM!