Some experiences in life are both unbelievable and unimaginable, yet real. We many times get to the end of our efforts, and just when we think it is all over, God shows up in a manner that we often lack words to describe. How could we have been so low the last moment, and just the very next moment, become so high? Only God does things like this that make tears of sorrow suddenly become tears of joy.
Victory is sweetest when we lacked the faith or courage to have anticipated it. It is at its best when it comes at a time when we already had given up all hope and surrendered to failure; when our strength seemed to have failed us and our faith seemed so weak that it could only have hoped for the worst.
Life many times seems to lock us in, and make us slaves to circumstances that are far beyond our powers. We sometimes go through seasons when our prayers seem to us only like noise; as some kind of meaningless and powerless rituals, without the force or energy to bring forth any meaningful change. But just when the heat seems to be the hottest, and our adversaries seem to be gaining the advantage, God in a most unanticipated manner steps in for us. And like the song writer wrote, just when our backs seem to be against the wall, God makes a way, causing walls to fall, and with His power performing miracles.
What is most remarkable however, isn’t that God comes through for us at a time we least expected any thing good could still happen; it is that out of nowhere, things suddenly change for us. We are so suddenly and radically transformed that just one moment apart, we look as though we weren’t the ones who the last moment were in the horrible pit struggling for survival. Like the three Hebrew children, we had gone through the furnace heated sevenfold over and yet had neither the smell of fire or of smoke on us; no trace whatsoever of a previous ugly experience. Yes! We could be in the miry clay the last minute struggling so hard to regain our freedom, and the very next minute, we are right set on the solid rock. We could the last moment have been in a truly horrible pit and yet in less than no time, find ourselves on the mountain top. And yet what is even more amazing is that we owe all of these sudden transformations, not to our strength; not to our solid faith in God, but purely to His sure mercies.
We truly do slip, and many times, our feet are almost all taken, but God comes through for us. And at such a time when our hearts seem to fail, so much so that we lack the faith to believe, God mysteriously shows to us that He is our strength and our portion forever (Psalms 73:2, 26). How God suddenly lifts a man from an horrible pit and the next moment sets him on high remains one of the wonders of His sovereignty.
This is God’s prerogative and His speciality. Hannah recounts that the LORD makes poor, and makes rich: he brings low, and lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he has set the world upon them (1 Samuel 2:7-8). O yes! The pillars of the earth belong to the LORD. He seeks permission from no one as to whom to raise up or whom to bring down. We can come from so low and get so high, all in a split second and yet without our knowing how. This is what God has in mind for us; a rapid exaltation that would be both sudden and unimaginable. The experiences of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and countless others in and out of the bible clearly demonstrates to us that God delights in the exaltation of the righteous (Psalm 75:10 ; 112:9).
Beloved, God has a lifting in mind for you. It truly doesn’t matter how lowly it may seem right now, God is about to set your feet upon a solid rock!
Remain Blessed
Pastor Jerry Orhue
Senior Pastor, Gracevine Chapel
