Take Strength in the Journey

Psalm 38:10

My heart throbs, my strength fails me; And the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me.

Psa 38:12

Those who seek my life lay snares {for me;} And those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction, And they devise treachery all day long

Psa 38:21

Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.

Psa 38:22

Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.


There are times when you don't feel you can go any further. You feel like each step weighs more than the last, even though you should be rested. You see your dreams falling all around you as you march on towards some unseen and undisclosed location. It hurts, I won't lie, and the more aggressive you steps the harder the ground seems to meet you.

I can think of nothing more painful than feeling alone. Nothing that steals away your strength than feeling like you are the only one fighting against yourself and the world you inhabit.

But take comfort in this. You are not the only one who has been here, in this place of utter failings. Where the world seems to stop and everything and everyone you love is stripped away. A place where food becomes tasteless and all pleasure becomes an artificial way to waste time.

The Lord is a hard master, he demands our all. He takes, he strips, he wounds, He destroys. I would like to sit here and say he only takes the bad, but that would be a lie. He takes everything that is not him, if even just for a season. He is in essence the most selfish being imaginable.

So why run towards this selfish desire, why cry out in the night, break me and take all I am? Why say, "you are enough," to one that takes all you have? leaving you the pot ash of your existence.

We cry because he is the only thing that is real.

We cry break me, because he is the only one whose rod is worthy of the task. We lay bear our chests to his wounds because he laid out his whole being to bring us into himself.

You see the lord demands of us himself that is within us. His holiness demands a complete setting aside of all we are and all we have; a complete exposure of his son. He is selfish, because he is holy and all we bring to him is our testimony of the breaking, and power of the blood of the lamb.

So if you are at that point, where the light of your eyes grows dim and your strength is failing. I Would say this, let them go, you've held on to long. Your eyes aren't worth the seeing, and your strength will never move a mountain.

Let affliction do its work. let the breaking expose the bone. When the psalmist cries out lord you are my only good thing. He means it. All else is removed.

If you ask, the Lord will break you, you will cry, you will want to quite, and you will think him the greatest evil you have known. But let me assure you of this, we can by faith be assured that when our eyes grow dim his light will shine the brightest through them, and when our strength fails, he will move the mountain, and when all is striped away, forcibly if needs be; he will be there our all in all.