“I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before Him and tell Him all my troubles. When I am overwhelmed, You alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.” (Psalm 142:1-3 NLT)
It’s not hard for me to feel overwhelmed these days, but fortunately, the Lord is never far away. If I let my focus slip from Him to me, I start to feel sorry for myself and quickly lose perspective. Psalm 142 is David’s prayer in a precarious season in his life.
He felt trapped, like his world was getting smaller and smaller, and he was quickly losing his way, not seeing clearly which direction he should go. Wisely, he took his fear, confusion, and uncertainties to the Lord, believing the Lord alone knew the way he should turn.
As I feel time quickly closing in on me, I’m reminded of just how fragile life is and how quickly time passes. If I allow my mind to roam it involuntarily fills with “what if’s” as the enemy of my soul seeks to fill me with fear. Gratefully, my Savior is my Ruler and Keeper, so, as a frightened child I run to my Father’s arms.
It’s ironic that as I age, I tend not to focus on all the ways I wisely invested my time, but on all the ways I wasted it and thwarted opportunities to make my life count for Jesus. My jumbled priorities brought about by desiring to please people rather than the Lord, at times leave me wanting, saddened, alone. Francis Chan spoke to me when he wrote: “Don’t get overwhelmed by how much time you have already wasted, and don’t dwell too long on past mistakes. Just take the next step. And keep the end in view.”
Fortunately, I came to the Lord as a teenager, but nonetheless have wasted more opportunities than I care to admit. Too often Satan leads us to believe we have a lot more time than we do. The truth is, we don’t know if we have another second. A dear friend shared part of a conversation he had with a young man who believed he was going to get into the Kingdom under the proverbial “wire,” on his death bed.
My friend wisely told him: “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” which, of course it was, but he went on to ask this young man: “Do you own a motorcycle?” to which he responded, “Yes.” So, he said, “Do you realize how many people are killed on motorcycles every day? All it takes is for someone in a car to not see you and BAM, you’re off to eternity. Then what’s going to happen?”
My friend is tall and has a great sense of humor, so he can get away with things like that, but he’s right. If you’re waiting until you get old for whatever reason, who gave you the idea you’re ever going to get old? And even if you do, the Bible teaches there is a point when we can wait too long and the Spirit will no longer draw us.
There comes a point when our heart becomes too hard, our mind too seared by sin, our conscience too warped to respond even if the Spirit would draw us. The Spirit of God works on His timetable, not ours. Ideally, the Lord speaks, we listen, and our lives are forever transformed, but our hearts and minds can become so overwhelmed by inattentiveness to God’s Spirit; our hearts become so callous we no longer hear His voice, and our eternity is sealed, not because God is not able or willing to forgive, but because we waited too long.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 