At Wit’s End

Psalm 107 reads: “They were at their wit’s end.”

The sailors described in Psalm 107 were caught in a storm. They had never seen such a storm. Today, it would be a category 5 hurricane.

Sails tattered, the ship up a mountain of a wave only to be tossed to the valley between waves the next instant. The sailors were exhausted from fighting this endless storm.  They staggered across the deck of their ship.

They were at their Wit’s End.

Maybe you are at Wit’s End right now. You can’t figure out what to do. Problems are overwhelming, complex, and rolling at you one after another. Questions abound: Does anyone care? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?

Every Christian will come to a place called Wit’s End!

In the Book of Job, Job came to Wit’s End and said, “Though God slay me, I will hope in him. I will also argue my case with him.” (Job 13:15). Job, having lost his family, his fortune, with only friends left who slandered him, came to the conclusion that he would still hope in God.

Job also found that he could complain and defend himself to God.

At the end of Job’s Wit’s End, scripture reads: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, and the Lord increased all that He had lost twofold.” (Job 42:10).

In 1995, someone sent me a newsletter by David Wilkerson – yes, in the mailbox outside my house. There was an article entitled “A Place Called Wit’s End”. In that article was a quote that I have never forgotten:

God keeps bringing us to Wit’s End until we learn to trust Him completely – no matter how hopeless things appear!

(You can find this article by a Google search “Wit’s End David Wilkerson”.)

These images of Wit’s End by Job and David Wilkerson have given me strength, endurance, and peace during trials for 25 years. I have learned that the places beyond my understanding, beyond my ability to solve, beyond hope – God is there!

I listen to problems daily. Today is the complaining generation as we endure personal conversations and endless media grumblings about what is wrong.

I find that too many come back from Wit’s End filled with anger and despair. It’s a choice what you decide at Wit’s End: is God good and great or is God mean and distant?

Psalm 107 describes what happened to the sailors at their Wit’s End:

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still … He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness (verses 28 and 29).

During one of my Wit’s End experiences, I prayed:

God you are great and powerful! No matter how dark, there is still light. No matter how confusing, there is still peace. No matter the trial, there is purpose.

Fact: God loves me, God has taken my sin away, God listens to my prayers, God has promised to work all things to the good; I will see the blessings of God in the land of the living.

You will survive Wit’s End. You will thrive because of Wit’s End.