Jesus is all that matters when He's all you've got!

2 Kings 7 
 3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

Life is full of ups and downs. What starts out well can take a dramatic decline in an instant. What looks to be a failure can turn into a thriving success in the twinkling of an eye. The miraculous ability of God to step into a situation and create a new reality is what makes a life committed to Him so exhilarating. The four lepers saw a situation not unlike what many of us have faced. No real option for success. Staying the course would result in death. Returning to where they had once resided would likewise end up in destruction, as no options were available there either. The only chance for survival was to be bold. To call it bravery is a misnomer. More like a desperate act of  self preservation. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. The bravest acts are committed by the most frightened soldiers.

Once in a while, if we are truly stretching our faith, we will find ourselves an island in life. Shark infested waters all around and no lifeboat to get us to safe land. What we do in these times of fear and uncertainty will most assuredly determine our destiny. The human inclination is generally to go with the safest know route. To call it faith by never moving. There is a season for remaining true to your post. There is also a moment in our lives when discretion is the better part of valor. If we do the same thing we've always done, we get the same results we've always gotten. True faith is when we get out of the boat as Peter did and step onto the water with Jesus.

The other safe road is going back to a place in life that we once knew. The lepers were from the city. No doubt they grew up there until their disease forced them into being marginalized. The unfortunate reality is, you can never go home again. Where you left is never where you return. Time and life and chance have a way of turning what used to be a refuge into nothing more than a death trap. Trying to recapture the past usually winds up in utter disappointment and a further depressing of the spirit. I have heard so many people say they wished things could get back to the way they used to be for them spiritually. That is impossible. You cannot recapture some former glory of yesterday. It is gone. Today is the day of salvation. Behold I will do a new thing, saith the Lord! Israel's biggest problem was that they were always trying to restore the past when what God was trying to do was reveal Himself in a new way to them.

Eventually, the four lepers looked at the only possibility of survival as what may have seemed like the most definite and doomed decision. A triumph was impossible to the naked eye. But luck favors the bold! God was able to deliver both the leperous men and the city through the decision they made to take a chance.

The point driven home to me today is that there are moments in life when you have no clear "winner" of choice. None will bring real solutions if the carnal man is what must produce it. We are without hope if we are without Jesus. I have to get to the point of understanding just how dependent on Him my life is. He will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death at times, just to teach us how to lean on Him. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. The only thing that matters is Him, when He's the only solution to your problems.