Awaken a Better YouSample

Step 1: Desperation

Let me start this devotional by sharing one basic principle: You are a mess—yet deeply loved by God. You’re already loved. Just as you are.

In other words, God has already empowered you with everything you need to become the best version of yourself. I aim to provide the resources by which you can unlock greater mental, spiritual, relational, and emotional health by moving through four growth points: from desperation to information to application to transformation. In doing so, you can achieve a holistic health—involving mind, body, and spirit—that can awaken the better you that God intends you to be.

Let’s start with desperation. Desperation in at least one area of your life helps you identify an area you want to change and find the motivation to get the ball rolling:

• A health crisis pushes you to take your relationship with your body seriously.
• A spiritual crisis causes you to strengthen your faith foundations.
• A relational crisis uncovers your need for stronger systems around relationships.
• A mental or emotional crisis forces you to recognize the depths of your trauma.

Sometimes you’re hit from multiple angles at the same time. But I’ve found that it’s often when we’re at our most desperate point that we realize how much we need God—and are in the best position to grow spiritually.

We see this in many of David’s psalms. He wrote these poems and songs while running from enemies, facing his own sin, or feeling alone and abandoned.

For instance, in Psalm 69:1-3, David cries out:

Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
I am worn out calling for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.

What a striking image of desperation! Yet David continued to look for God.

Whatever problem you’ve identified, you can experience significant change when you make a conscious decision to move past desperation to seek the right information. That’s what we’re going to look at next.

What is one problem in your life you desperately want to change? Consider writing a psalm about it, expressing how you feel and how desperate you are for God’s intervention.