ROCK BOTTOM

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

ROCK BOTTOM

READ:  Psalm 119:65-72

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

that I may learn Your statutes.  Psalm 119:71

I was in my early thirties, a dedicated wife and mother, a Christian worker at my husband’s side.  Yet inwardly I found myself on a trip nobody wants to take-the trip downward.  I was heading for that certain sort of breakdown that most of us resist, the breakdown of my stubborn self-sufficiency.

Finally I experienced the odd relief of hitting rock bottom, where I made an unexpected discovery:  The rock on which I had been thrown was none other than Christ himself.  Cast on Him alone, I was in a position to rebuild the rest of my life, this time as a God-dependent person rather than the self-dependent person I had been.  My rock-bottom experience became a turning point and one of the most vital spiritual development of my life.

Most people feel anything but spiritual when they hit bottom.  Their misery is often reinforced by Christians who take a very shortsighted view of what the sufferer is going through, and  why.  But our heavenly Father is well pleased with what He intends to bring out of such a painful process.

A person who knows the secret of the God-dependent life can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statues” (psalm 119:71).    JY

When a Christian hits rock bottom,

he finds that Christ is a firm foundation.