stolen from Jamie

Stole this from my friend, Jamie...

"We Christians do not like to think about being absolutely helpless in the hands of our God. With all of our faith, and with all of his grace, we still prefer to maintain some semblance of control over our lives. When difficulties arise, we like to think that there are certain steps we can take, or attitudes we can adopt, to alleviate our anguish and be happy.  Sometimes there are... 

But anyone who has truly suffered will know that when it comes to the real thing there is no help for it, no human help whatsoever. Simply put, when we are in a deep dark hole we cannot think our way out; neither can we hope, sing, pray or even love our way out.  In fact, there is absolutely nothing either we or anyone else can do to better our situation. We can have faith, yes; but faith in itself will not change anything. Neither faith, nor any other good thing that a person might have or do, can actually lift the cloud, move the mountain, or bring about an end to the problem. Only the Lord himself can do that, and when he does, as Exodus 6:6 puts it, 'Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke...'

How will we know? Simply because nothing and no one else could possibly have done it. In this kind of crucible, therefore, we come to a new understanding of what it means to be saved, what it means to be snatched away from the brink of Destruction. Here we get down to the bedrock of the gospel." 

- Mike Mason, The Gospel according to Job