Reach for the End of Your Rope

A Series on the Beatitudes
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 5:3; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2

 [In this series, we will be looking at the Beatitudes in the context of the Jewish culture. When Jesus spoke, what images, what scripture came to the mind of his listeners? And then to look at how those same words can change your life today.]

 ³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.   NIV

 

Have you ever felt like you were at the end of your rope? Like there was no place to go but down? It’s not a fun feeling because it probably means that you’ve reached the bottom… emotionally and spiritually. You may have even felt like giving up.

 

What happens when you reach the bottom? When you reach, “the end of your rope”? The spring quarter of my sophomore year in college, I reached the bottom and cried out to God asking him “Why”! His answer was a complete new direction for my life.

 

The Bible is filled with stories about people who reached the end of their rope, and when they did, they were ready for God to take over. Here’s what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians about this when asking the Lord to remove his weakness.

 

⁹ But God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.           NIV

 

I love how in The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases the first beatitude. He gives you a visual that you not only can picture, but you can feel.

 

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.             MSG

 

I don’t imagine that this was a popular message for the Jews of Jesus’ time. They were expecting a political Messiah who would empower them, not encourage them to reach for the end of their rope. And it is definitely not a popular message today when empowerment is on the lips of so many segments of our population.

 

Yet, it IS his message to us. So how do you reach for the end of your rope without becoming an emotional and spiritual wreck? Following the example that Jesus set for us is a good place to start. Here is how Paul describes it in Philippians 2.

 

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!            NIV

 

So go ahead, and reach for the end of your rope.

 

Copyright 2021 Joseph B Williams