When We Come to the End of Ourselves
O Come To The Altar | Official Lyric Video | Elevation Worship
When we come to the end of ourselves, we begin to discover what we really had all along.
In this lifetime, many of us may never achieve complete consciousness or fully understand the mystery of who we are and why we are here. We spend years trying to figure it out. We search for meaning, wrestle with purpose, and attempt to arrange life so that it makes sense to us.
Some people experience a tragedy so great that it shatters the illusion of control in an instant. Life brings them to their knees, and suddenly everything they thought they controlled is revealed for what it was—an illusion.
For me, it hasn’t always happened that way.
For me, it’s often the slow grind of the world, one little turmoil at a time.
A disagreement over something that, days later, means absolutely nothing. A conversation with someone I love, desperately trying to convince them to get their act together. Worrying about tomorrow. Replaying yesterday. Trying to fix people, circumstances, outcomes, and things that were never mine to fix.
Maybe all of these things have their place in God’s journey for us. Maybe even the frustration has something to teach us.
But none of it solves the real problem—the relentless conversation taking place in the space between our ears.
The mind wants answers.
It wants resolution.
It wants control.
It wants people to behave the way we think they should behave. It wants life to unfold according to the script we have quietly written for it.
And when life refuses to cooperate, we suffer.
Perhaps coming to the end of ourselves doesn’t mean that our life has fallen apart. Maybe it simply means we have finally exhausted our belief that we can think our way into peace.
There comes a point when another thought won’t save us. Another argument won’t settle us. Another attempt to control someone won’t change them. Another hour spent worrying about tomorrow won’t protect us from it.
And there, at the end of ourselves, surrender begins.
God was never asking us to understand everything.
He was asking us to trust Him.
Maybe peace isn’t found when everything around us finally gets worked out. Maybe peace comes when we stop demanding that it does.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10
Sometimes God allows us to reach the end of ourselves so that we can finally discover there was never an end to Him.
