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Verse:For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. —1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV
One Wednesday night I did something I rarely do: I attended my church’s prayer gathering. That night the senior pastor led a devotional about the times when life has thrown so much your way, and you are not sure how you will make it.
You feel like you are in a hole, and you keep falling deeper, with no visible way to climb out. You are so deep that you cannot see the light.
With no human way to get out of the situation, you are driven to pray. You are not praying because it is the right time of day or because someone told you that is what you are supposed to do. You pray because there is nothing else you can do.
That is exactly where I am, I thought as I listened to the speaker.
I was in such a messy situation at the time, and I knew I could not fix it on my own. I had tried. But I know Someone who can fix any problem. I must pray.
I must tell God that I need Him. I need Him to take over my current situation and, indeed, my whole life. I do not have any other options; I must pray.
I already know I cannot fix this. God can. I must pray.
It was the Christmas season; all around me, people were wishing for peace on Earth and goodwill to men. But I did not feel any peace, and I certainly did not feel goodwill to all humankind. I needed help. I was driven to pray. I did not understand why I was faced with this situation. I did not ask for it. I did not cause it. When you are tempted to despair, when the darkness of that deep, deep hole has shut out all the light, and when you do not know where to turn or what to do, remember this: God has a plan. “It is your privilege to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in the knowledge of His sustaining grace. Let His love take possession of mind and heart. Guard against becoming overwearied, careworn, depressed. . . . Turn your eyes away from that which is dark and discouraging, and behold Jesus, our great Leader, under whose watchful supervision . . . [we are] destined to triumph gloriously.”*
Jean Arthur
* Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, bk. 2 (Washington, DC: Review and Herald®, 1980), 399.