I am going to share with you some thoughts from a paper I got from Dave Wilkerson and the title was as above. My whole life I had heard the expression, “being at my wit’s end” but I didn’t know it was scriptural until I read this paper. I love it when we keep finding things new in scripture that we didn’t know were there.
I can remember my mother saying that a lot and I am sure I was the one who drove her there a great deal of the time.
This is the reference: Psalms 107:23-27
“Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded, and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and were at their wit’s end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress; he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.”
The verses tell of sailors on a ship being tossed by the storm. Powerful winds and waves so they were like drunken sailors being tossed into the heavens and down to the depths. Can’t you just picture it. Frightening. It says they have come to a place called “wit’s end”. I think the following thoughts of Dave Wilkerson are very good and applicable to our lives.
“These sailors have come to a place called “Wit’s End”. It is a condition that afflicts all Christians at one time or another. This phrase means simply, ‘having lost or exhausted any possibility of perceiving or thinking of a way out.’ In short, it is the end of all human ability and resourses. There is no escape – no help, no deliverance, other than in God himself.”
“Like the sailors aboard the ship, you have simply been going about your business, moving on in your walk with Jesus. Then one day, out of nowhere, a storm hit – and waves of trouble came crashing down on you from all sides! Like the sailors in Psalms 107, your ‘…soul is melted because of trouble’.
“I must note: God himself has initiated the storm! ‘…for he commanded, and raised the stormy wind…’ vs. 25. 1Peter 4:12-13 also says, ‘Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.’”
“First the sailors came to their wit’s end, giving up on all human hope or help. Second, they cried to the Lord in the midst of their trouble, turning to Him alone for help!”
I think this is a good thought. “God keeps bringing us to Wit’s End until we learn to trust Him completely – no matter how hopeless we appear.”
“We see this happen time after time with the children of Isreal in the wilderness. Again and again God brought them to wit’s end – to test them, to see of they would trust Him. But each time they refused!”
“Wit’s End is a place of suffering, pain and insecurity.”
“Our loving heavenly Father would never lead his children into a dry desert only to let them die of thirst – especially when He has a reservoir stored in a nearby rock! God had always had a plan for His people. And He has a plan for you right now, to deliver you from your present trouble. There is no problem you have that He can’t unravel!”
“When you are at Wit’s End, one of two things will happen to you. You will either emerge trusting in man, or trusting fully in God – that is either cursed or blessed. Which way will you respond in your time of trouble?”
“Jeremiah writes, Chap 17:5-8 ‘This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
To me (Rosemary) this is summed up also in Habakkuk 3: 17-19. That tells us in the midst of our life falling apart we will STILL rejoice in the Lord. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”
Wilkerson ends with these words. May it be true for us. “God help us surrender our wills, our personal agendas, when we come to this place called wit’s end. May it become a place of renewed faith and trust in our loving Father. Amen!”
[Editor’s note: The photo below is a photo copy of Gr.Rosy’s Utmost for His Highest devotional (one of her favorites), the entries for Aug 11th & 12th both contained references to “Wit’s End” and were included in the folder with this teaching. Grandma wrote a personal note below in her devotional, “95 – Mother at Cottesmore”.]