Harry R. Jr. Jackson - You Were Born for More: Six Steps to Breaking Through to Your Destiny

The Promise of Transforming Grace

H as it happened to you? In the darkest hours of life, have you come face-to-face with your greatest need? Maybe you looked in the mirror one morning and saw someone you no longer recognized, or someone you no longer wanted to be. Maybe you have struggled with the loss of a loved one, a spouse, a dear friend or a relationship that somehow went wrong. Or maybe, like me, you have heard the sobering words from a doctor telling you, The diagnosis is not good. In these and similar situations, there is hope. But in every case, our greatest need is for someone to rescue us.

When accidents happen, when illness strikes or when the rent comes due and things are completely out of control, what we need is someone to walk beside us and keep us from stumbling. But no earthly friend can, in and of themselves, be the solo go-to person. In my darkest moments, Jesus, my Lord and Savior, has become the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He is there beside me, encouraging me and holding me up.

Unfortunately, there are times when I do not feel Gods presence. My prayers go unanswered and the whole world seems oblivious to my pain. Suddenly I feel alone, so I cry out. Jesus Himself quoted a prophetic psalm as He was dying on the cross: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34 KJV ). The truth is, I am never alone. God has not moved. He is always there, even in the most stressful and difficult times, but for some reason the phone feels off the hook, as if I am unreachable.

The situation is all too familiar, isnt it? To complicate things, we sometimes create barriers between ourselves and the Lord. We know that David sinned with Bathsheba and made other serious mistakes. Davids sins, like ours, were internally complicated. Yes, lust and presumption were involved with Bathsheba. But in those days it was common for a king to take in the family of a fallen general. Marrying the widow would have been seen as an act of kindness. Still, after the sin of adultery, David made things even worse by getting Uriah killed on the battlefield. Davids desire was to save face, to hide his sin. We often fall into the same trap by rationalizing and excusing ourselves from sin. We attempt to put perfume on the corpse of wrong motives or we attempt to dress up bad actions in the graveclothes of rationalization, in the name of positive thinking.

In the midst of trials, when we are hurting and cry out in desperation, God is always faithful. But He is also watching to see how we respond to His guidance and correction. David was punished repeatedly for his sins, stripped bare of his excuses. But against this backdrop, he never completely turned away from God again. Instead, he grew in his knowledge of God. In my book The Way of the Warrior (Chosen), I explore Davids life journey in detail. As he expressed in the Twenty-third Psalm, the Lords rod and his staff comforted him. The shepherd would use his rod as an instrument of correction with the sheep, the staff as an instrument of intervention to keep the sheep on the right path.

It is reassuring to know that the great saints of the Bible were human, too, and struggled with trials and tribulations, just as we do. When a personal crisis hits us, we can, through the grace of God, get back to basics and begin to rebuild our foundation. Our goal must always be to reconnect with Him through prayer, praise and His written Word. We must remind ourselves of His promise to never leave us or forsake us. In fact, early in my salvation experience, I memorized two powerful verses: