Overcoming Trials

The Secret No One Tells You in Your Lowest Moment

My lowest moment came on a sunny winter morning, golden beams of daylight blazing through the smudged windowpane.

I awoke with a throbbing head and a list of regrets so long that I couldn’t begin to count them.  Reeling from the grief of a crushing relational breakdown, confused about the trajectory of my future, and uncertain of how to move forward, I felt stuck.

I wondered if my lowest moment would ever end and prayed for God to take away the pain.

Maybe you can relate.

Maybe your heart has been torn in two, and you’re living in the middle of your lowest moment today, too.

What Is God Doing in Your Lowest Moment?

Like me, you might feel like you’re all alone, wondering if God has forgotten you.  You might wonder why he walked away from you when you needed him most.

These thoughts flooded my mind that sunny morning, threatening to suffocate me.

“God, where are you?” I whispered.

Silence.

I imagined Jesus in his white robe, standing far away with folded arms and a disappointed scowl on his face.  Surely, he had turned away from me, leaving me to fend for myself.

This image of Jesus’ disappointed and condemning face remained with me for some time after that forsaken winter morning.  I assumed he had left me all alone to figure out how to clean up the mess that had become my life.

The Secret for Your Lowest Moment

Not long after that morning, I awoke, startled, to a dream that offered a very different reality about my lowest moment.

I dreamed that I was lying in bed on that same sunny morning, feeling heartbroken and alone, when I sensed the presence of someone else in the room.

“I will fight for you,” a voice proclaimed.

Before I could respond, I woke up, my heart hammering in my chest.  Did I make that up?  Surely my dream was just a hopeful wish from my creative imagination. 

I wondered if those words might hold the secret I’d missed in my lowest moment: Jesus had not turned away from me; instead, he was fighting for me.

If it was true, I knew that this kind of tender, pursuant, radical love held the power to change my life forever.  I spent the following weeks searching my Bible for evidence that Jesus fights for us in our lowest moments.

Here is what I discovered.  I warmly invite you to put yourself inside these stories and soak in these words today:

God is fighting for you.

First, I encountered a God who protects and fights for his children.  In the words of Exodus 14:14: “The Lord your God will fight for you.  You need only to be still.”

This was a message for God’s people thousands of years ago, but it is true for us today, too.  God never changes.  His character is the same today as it was thousands of years ago.  He fights for his children.

When our hearts are broken, when we face our lowest moments, and even when we’ve made messes of our lives, God is not turning away from us.  He is fighting for us.

Let’s look at another example.

In your lowest moment, the Lord bends down to defend you.

In the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel, we find a woman who is about to be stoned to death.  Perhaps you know the story.  She has been caught in the act of adultery, and the religious people are eager to seek justice.

She’s half-naked, lying in the dirt, about to meet her bloody death as judgmental critics bludgeon her with rocks.  Talk about a low moment.

More than any other passage of Scripture, this passage shows me the posture Jesus takes in my lowest moment.

Do you remember what he does?

He bends low to be close to the woman.

He then begins writing in the dirt—and in doing so, he steps into her lowest moment with her.  Jesus isn’t afraid to get her dirt on his hands.  He’s not afraid of your dirt either, friend.  He is willing to sit on the ground, or in the corner of the bathroom stall, or on your bedroom floor, and hold you in your darkest, most broken moments.  He is with you.

Jesus isn’t afraid of your dirt.

Jesus also defends the woman. He invites any of the onlookers to cast a stone if they are without sin.  The crowd leaves.  The woman is alone with Jesus in her lowest moment.

Jesus then looks into her eyes with tenderness.  He doesn’t lecture her or condemn her.  He doesn’t roll his eyes or fold his arms.  Instead, he forgives her and tells her to go and sin no more.

Regardless of whether your lowest moment is any fault of your own, Jesus is right here with you.  He isn’t afraid of your dirtiest, lowest, most broken places.  He is fighting for you, defending you.

Let’s look at one more story that illustrates Jesus’ love for you in your lowest moment.

God is running to you with open arms.

As I studied God’s Word, a familiar story in the 15th chapter of Luke’s Gospel captivated my heart.  It is the story of a son who has turned away from his father, spent his inheritance on parties and women, and returns home feeling hungry, broken, and ashamed.

He expects his father to condemn him and has resigned himself to work as a servant in his family’s home.

However, his father’s response is unexpected.

His father has been watching for him and waiting for him to return.  In love, his father sees him approaching from far away, and he does what no respectable Jewish man would do: He runs.

Let’s not miss this.

Jewish men did not run.  This would have been throwing aside propriety and honor.  It would have been humiliating and humbling.

Nevertheless, the father runs to his son.  He wraps his arms around him, welcomes him home, kisses him lovingly, and prepares a celebration for his homecoming.

Dear friend, if you have turned away from God in your lowest moment, he is like the father who stands outside of his house watching for his child to return home.  God is waiting for you.  Take one step in his direction by speaking his name today, and he will run to you, throw his arms around you, and welcome you home.

This is the secret for your lowest moment: God has not abandoned you; he is fighting for you and waiting for you to run into his arms.

What are you waiting for?

God is waiting for you. Take one step in his direction by speaking his name today, and he will run to you, throw his arms around you, and welcome you home. #GodsLove #love #Jesus Click To Tweet

A Free Devotional for Your Lowest Moment:

I have a gift for you today.  Hope for Hard Days is my free 10-day online devotional to help you hold onto hope when life is tough.  You will find 10 readings to lift your head in your lowest moments.  Click here and I’ll send it to your email inbox today for free with promo code HOPE.

These Two Books are Free on Kindle Unlimited as eBooks and Also Available in Print:

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Calling all moms and daughters!

Additionally, my 12-year-old daughter, Bekah, and I wrote a mother-daughter devotional book to help mothers and daughters grow closer together while connecting with God.  Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith includes 60 devotions with Scripture, commentaries from both of us, conversation starters, and even a shared journaling section.  Multitudes of mothers, daughters, mentors, and younger women are being transformed by this book!  You can buy your paperback or get your free Kindle Unlimited eBook on Amazon right here.

 

 

I’m passionate about equipping others to encounter God in powerful and life-changing ways. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me hiking, jogging, exploring wild places with my three young children and husband, leading small groups, and mentoring younger women. A certified special education teacher, I am on leave from the classroom for a season of chasing frogs and playing in creeks with my little ones. Most of all, the compassionate love of Jesus has forever ravished my heart, and I'm emphatic about making his love known to the world.