Desperate Faith For Desperate Days

By Samuel Chadwick (1860 – 1932)

    The Bible is full of desperate days.  Its record is made up of them, its songs are inspired by them, its prophecy is concerned with them, and its revelation has come through them.

    The desperate days are the steppingstones in the path of light.  They seem to have been God’s opportunity and man’s school of wisdom.

    In every story of deliverance in Psalm 107, the point of desperation gave God His chance.  The “wits’ end” of desperation was the beginning of God’s power.

    Recall the promise of seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sands of the sea to a couple as good as dead.  Read again the story of the Red Sea and its deliverance, and of Jordan with its ark standing midstream.  Study once more the prayers of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, when they were sore pressed and knew not what to do.

    Go over the history of Nehemiah, Daniel, Hosea and Habakkuk.  Stand with awe in the darkness of Gethsemane, and linger by the grave in Joseph’s garden through those terrible days.  Call the witnesses of the early church, and ask the apostles the story of their desperate days.

Trust God

    Faith did not make our desperate days.  Its work is to sustain and solve them.  The only alternative to a desperate faith is despair, and faith holds on and prevails.  Its strength is in its power to wait.  Unbelief judges by the immediate; faith stakes everything on the ultimate. 

    Despair looks hopelessly at the problem; desperate faith trusts God against all odds.