When All Else Fails

“O Lord; You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.” Psalm 142:5 NLT

“Success is fragile; security is not in success. It is in God alone!”

My thoughts today are about “when all else fails.”

I do not want to seem negative, nor pessimistic, nor discouraging, but hard times are neither the exception nor the rule; however, they are the common experience of all. Such moments will either press you toward faith, or push you to despair. Which of those happens to you makes a significant difference. Faith, the first of those, is a wonderful thing; pushed to despair, the latter of those, is unprofitable.

When all is well, you might tend to assume some measure of self-sufficiency, willing to believe you are equal to every task, a match for any challenge. Good times mislead you to believing that is possible; hard times expose the inaccuracy of that and can leave you with troublesome doubts.

Today’s verse describes David at one of his lowest points  – a time when all else fails. After enjoying the favor of King Saul, a place in the royal family and palace, and the praise and popularity of the nation, David is now driven away from all he had and forced to take refuge in a cave. The victory over Goliath was a diminishing memory; the danger from Saul increased daily; the problems mounted and his circumstances tightened.

David was desperately looking for refuge; he sought for it in the cave of Adullam where he found God was the true Refuge. You know who came to his aid? “His brothers and father . . came to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became their leader.” 1 Samuel 22:2 NIV. Never was it truer that “misery loves company.”

When all is well, people sing your praise and want to share your success; there’s a crowd happy to hang around. But when life feels upside down and you cannot see how it would ever be right again, the best people to surround you are those related to you by God, and those who relate to your disillusioning pain – people who pressed into God to find refuge. Read Psalm 91:1-12 NLT.

Remember the cave of Adullam? Today’s verse may well have been written in that cave; the words certainly describe what David found to be true there. That is when and where God met David, and he found God to be more than enough. “O Lord; You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.” Psalm 142:5 NKJV. The cave was just a place to be temporarily; God was and would always be his Refuge, and a crown and the love of a nation was still ahead for him. God always has good things for your future, whatever it feels like right now.

When David spoke of his faith, he could not yet see his future. For all he knew at the moment, the cave might have been the best he would know. When all else fails or seems to have done so, let God be all that you need or want. Success is fragile. Your security is not in your success; it is in God alone! Read Psalm 73:23-26 NIV.

My prayer for you today is this: when all else fails, press into God who will not fail you.