This is what the LORD says “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.” (Jer. 17:5)
CHARLES LOST HIS WAY. His family was disintegrating. Their loving husband and father was lost to them. He turned his back on them and the Lord. The family pleaded with him to seek help. Their pleas were ignored. One night, his son gave him an ultimatum: “Pop, you need help. Now. You get help, or you get out.”
Charles reluctantly agreed to seek help. That evening, his son called Alcoholics Anonymous. Two AA members rang the doorbell. The men sat around the kitchen table, drinking what seemed like gallons of coffee and talking for hours. Charles acknowledged he was in a desert of desolation. The men promised to share their strength with him through the days ahead. Their promise gave Charles confidence to take his first steps from that wasteland of despair.
It is hard to see life as it is. Charles’s eyes and heart opened to what life could be. He turned to his family and the Lord for the rest of his life and no longer depended on his own strength. Rather, he trusted the Lord’s strength as he walked through life.
Trust the Lord for the courage to step out of your wasteland.
Viola Gommer and her husband live in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Their lives are enriched through family, church, community, and supporting world missions.
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