We all need faith for desperate days, and the Bible is filled with accounts of such days. Its story is told with them, its songs are inspired by them, its prophecy deals with them, and its revelation has come through them.

Desperate days are the stepping-stones on the path of light. They seem to have been God’s opportunity to provide our school of wisdom.

Psalm 107 is filled with stories of God’s lavish love. In every story of deliverance, it was humankind coming to the point of desperation that gave God His opportunity to act. Arriving at “their wits’ end” (Psalm 107:27) of desperation was the beginning of God’s power.

Remember the promise made to a couple “as good as dead,” that their descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12). Read once again the story of the Red Sea deliverance, and the story of how “the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan” (Joshua 3:17 NASB). Study once more the prayers of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah when they were severely troubled, not knowing what to do. Go over the history of Nehemiah, Daniel, Hosea, and Habakkuk. Stand with awe in the darkness of Gethsemane, and linger by the tomb in Joseph of Arimathea’s garden through those difficult days. Call to account the witnesses of the early church, and ask the apostles to relate the story of their desperate days.

Desperation is better than despair. Remember, our faith did not create our desperate days. Faith’s work is to sustain us through those days and to solve them. Yet the only alternative to desperate faith is despair. Faith holds on and prevails.

There is not a more heroic example of desperate faith than the story of the three Hebrew young men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their situation was desperate, but they bravely answered, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17–18). I especially like the words “But even if he does not”!

Let me briefly mention the Garden of Gethsemane and ask you to ponder its “nevertheless.” “If it be possible . . . nevertheless . . .” (Matthew 26:39 KJV). Our Lord’s soul was overwhelmed by deep darkness. To trust meant experiencing anguish to the point of blood, and darkness to the very depths of hell—Nevertheless! Nevertheless!

Find a hymnal and sing your favorite hymn of desperate faith. S. CHADWICK

When obstacles and trials seem Like prison walls to be, I do the little I can do And leave the rest to Thee.

And when there seems no chance, no change, From grief can set me free, Hope finds its strength in helplessness, And calmly waits for Thee.

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.—He . . . became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.—In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?—Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry here, and watch with me.

And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.—We . . . have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

The Spirit . . . helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.—This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.—When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.

[Jesus] prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Who in the days of his flesh . . . offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord .—Continuing instant in prayer.—Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.—By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.—This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.

Delight thyself . . . in the Lord ; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

O Lord , I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Ye know not what ye ask.

He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

These things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

I would have you without carefulness.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.