“I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.” Psalm 143:6

There are terrible, dark times in every life when loss, grief, pain, and fear threaten us. These are serious enemies. We may not be strong enough to battle them and survive. After the battle, even if we continue to breathe, our spirits may be so crushed that we may as well be dead. David recounts in Psalm 143: “The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead.”

Depression can feel like this, and with it our spirits flicker and grow dim. Or it can happen in the blink of an eye—suddenly all seems lost, there is no hope.

I remember the very moment our little daughter’s organs began to fail after several days in Intensive Care. By then she was using a ventilator to breathe. It was nearly dawn, and we’d been washing her small body for long hours with ice water, trying to reduce her fever. Her eyes were half closed, unfocused. For the last hour I could barely rouse her, and then I realized she wasn’t responding at all. In a moment her body suddenly turned yellow, as if a yellow shadow passed over her, and she was utterly still.

I remember watching, numb, disbelieving, and then searing pain, and helplessness. This dear child, so loved, at the edge of death. And all I could do then was spread out my hands and fall onto God’s mercy.

David cried out: “Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”

God doesn’t reward us for being righteous. No one is righteous. We are not worthy of his attention.

But God loves us tenderly, and He has promised to listen to our prayers--and not only to listen but to answer them. He loves us; he is merciful. He will catch us when we fall on him. He will rain his mercy on us, and we will live.

God gave us our daughter back, from the very brink of death. And so He brings us all, through Jesus Christ, to eternal life.

“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.”

By Lisa Russell