We’ve all heard it said, “Desperate (drastic) times calls for desperate (drastic) measures.” One translation to this phrase suggests that in adverse circumstances, actions that might have been rejected under normal circumstances may become the best choice.

For some of you, the best choice to rely on in normal circumstances is man, science, medicine, and technology. But what happens when these resources can’t deliver the solutions or remedies that you need?

Oswald Chambers said, “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don’t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of ‘good time’ is seldom not in sync with ours.”

Turning to God should always be our first choice and not our last resort. I’ve taught my children that if they ever find themselves in a situation and that can’t seem to manage to get themselves out of, the first conversation (prayer) they need to have is with God and then me or their mother!

Every believer in Jesus Christ is called to a life of faith (Galatians 2:20). Faith beckons us to rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God our Savior (Hab. 3:18) in spite of our circumstances. When we love and are joyful through trials, it is the ultimate demonstration of true faith. The Christian faith doesn’t rest on what is seen and what is temporary—it relies on the all-sufficiency of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:18).

In many seasons of desperation, it’s often challenging to rejoice in faith. When we feel spiritually dry, empty, and cannot pray as we ought, we can always rely on God through the Holy Spirit. The Father sent us the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, One who delivers us in our weakness by interceding for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). We can rely on him to convict, navigate, help, and comfort us in and out of trials (John 14:26; Isaiah 11:2; John 16:7:15). The Spirit of God gives us the freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) and positions us to abound in the power of hope in Jesus Christ (Romans 15:13) regardless of the severity of our plight! Why would anyone choose to settle for a resource when you possess unrestricted access to THE SOURCE?!