When we come to the end of ourselves.

 When we come to the end of ourselves.... That's a very good time to be still and silent before God.

It may be an external situation, a personal relationship gone awry, a family member out of control, a beloved child who has forgotten how to love themselves or others, our own medical plight, someone else's medical plight. In this life there are a vast array of choices to cause us to come to the end of ourselves.

It's not just that "love is a battlefield" as the 1983 song goes, which dates my teenage years somewhat. Life is a battlefield, and we can be bruised and bloodied metaphorically or actually by our interactions with humankind.

I saw a garment top someone was wearing with the words   Human...Kind

If only it were so!

God is not the same as us. We get confused and think He is, but He is definitely not.

If we have had a father or a mother caring for us in life, we often take their traits and layer them over our vision of God. I think we all do it, because we automatically create our own reference points for life.

But then come the issues with our relationship with God.

Absent either physically or emotionally, abusive, controlling, demeaning, cruel, insensitive, angry, judgmental, weak, chaotic etc....all the worst bits of human nature packaged in parents or caregivers who unintentionally ruin our imagination when we consider our relationship with God.

So it is very understandable that we shrink back from being face to face with God without any words, religious or otherwise, to hide behind.

It is scary...and we are scared, much more than most realize.

Because we have layered our defenses so well our inner hearts are often an impenetrable fortress, and then we present to the world that we are fine, and we answer in this way to those who bother to ask.

But to be quiet with God, and face our pain, confusion, hurt and disappointment concerning what we are currently facing in life. 

That's a huge risk we are considering to take.

We fear what if God turns out to be like our Father/Mother/Grandparent/Caregiver? The very people we often turned to when we came to the end of ourselves when we were young, those we relied on and trusted even with their faults.

They let us down. They weren't perfect. They weren't powerful. Sometimes they weren't kind.

God is perfect. God is powerful. And more importantly to the parts of us that are afraid, God is kind.

He is kinder than we could ever imagine. And He likes us. He really does.

He is very interested in helping us when we get to the end of ourselves in whatever situation we face.

I have always loved these Bible verses, and the absolute truth contained therein.

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Maybe God wants to speak to us and give us wisdom in our situation, maybe He wants us to be aware of His presence with us, maybe He wants us to let go of trying to solve everything and entrust the outcome to Him, maybe He wants us to get a revelation of His pure, powerful, ever present love for us.

 What if time with God is the most wonderful and worthwhile experience of our lives, especially when we have come to the end of ourselves? 

What if we are just willing to try... for just five minutes?