At Your Wits End

When Jehoshaphat heard that the enemy surrounded him, he cried out to God saying,
“We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do” (2 Chronicles 20:12). This is not the way most of us talk today. We boast of our great power in the face of adversity. We declare, “Greater is He within me than he that is in the world.” But at the first hint of disaster, we retreat in fear and dismay. We really don’t know what to do, but we act like we know it all. Jehoshaphat humbly admitted his dependance on God.

Jehoshaphat was at his wit’s end, which means he came to the end of his own mental and emotional resources. Have you ever been at your wit’s end? Are you there right now? Do you know where the expression “wit’s end” originated? You may be surprised to learn that it comes from the Bible:
For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. (Psalm 107:25-27)

Psalm 107 details what it is like to be at your wit’s end. It is compared to the uncontrolled environment of a raging storm:

For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. (Psalm 107:15)

Your “wit’s end” is a place of instability marked by spiritual, emotional, and mental “ups and downs”:

They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. (Psalm 107:26)

At your wit’s end your soul (your inner man) is “melted” and you are spiritually famished:
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them...They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. (Psalm 107:5 and 26)

Your “wit’s end” it is a condition of spiritual anorexia paralleling that of physical anorexia in the natural body:
...They fell down, and there was none to help...They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. (Psalm 107:12,27)

Your “wit’s end” is compared by the Psalmist to hard labor (Psalm 107:12). It is a lonely place, a “solitary way” where there is no one to help:
They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in...there was none to help. (Psalm 107:4,12 )

When the difficulties of life bring you to your wit’s end, as they did Jehoshaphat, things appear to be out of control. Psalm 107:25 indicates, however that the stormy winds and waves areactuallyunderGod’sauthority. “ButwhywouldHeallowadevastatingstorminmylife?” you question. “Why would God permit an enemy alliance against me? Why would He allow me to come to my wit’s end?”

Because it is at your wit’s end--when you feel deserted, powerless, and fearful--that you learn what to do when you don’t know what to do...and once you master these strategies you can apply them to every difficulty of life you encounter. While others are running around wringing their hands in despair you will know exactly what to do!