Genesis 28:Nowhere to Look But Up

Hitting bottom seems to be a prerequisite for usefulness in God’s kingdom.  Moses hit bottom during his forty years in the desert after attempting to deliver the Israelites by his own power.

Joseph hit bottom after his dream of being ruler over his brothers was dashed by repeated false accusations against him.

Peter hit bottom shortly after boasting that he would never deny the Lord. The apostle Paul described hitting bottom in 2 Cor 1:8-9:“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 

”Hitting bottom is enormously valuable, because when you’re on the bottom, there is “Nowhere to look but up!” In fact, hitting bottom is so essential to the life of faith, That God not only allows us to come to the end of ourselves, but often helps to facilitate that process–most often through failure. I don’t believe a person can be truly useful to God until he or she has been ruined by God