“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
(Philippians 4:12 ESV)
Do you feel low?
Low is a Bible term that’s often used by people who are suffering, and it may be a helpful word to you today to name your own experience. God’s Word often serves us by making sense of our experiences.
It’s Okay to Feel Low
To be “brought low” is a common experience among God’s people. You are not alone if you feel this way. Take a look at these confessions of God’s people who felt low.
We read this prayer in Psalm 79: “Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low” (Psalm 79:8 ESV). This is the prayer of a faithful Israelite, who had just witnessed his city being destroyed and the suffering that comes from war.
We hear another prayer in Psalm 142:6, this time from someone brought low because of the hurts of other people, “Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!” (ESV).
More positively, another biblical writer gives us a testimony of being rescued from this state by God when he says, “The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me” (Psalm 116:6 ESV).
The words of Psalm 107:39 sum up the cause of being “low” best—we are “brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow” (ESV). Many different hardships could cause you to feel low. Whatever the cause, no one wants to be brought low.
Do you relate to this state of the soul that the Bible describes?
Learning to Be Brought Low
One morning, after one of the hardest stretch of months yet in my life, I sat at my kitchen table with my Bible open. I hesitated to pray. Tears filled my eyes. All I could think of were Asaph’s words from Psalm 142:6, that we just read. I whispered through tears, “Lord, I feel so low.”
And quick as ever, the Holy Spirit rushed to my aid—as I pray he does for you right now through his powerful Word.
He brought to mind these words from the New Testament: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Philippians 4:12 ESV).
At once, my heart sighed in relief. These words reminded me that to be brought low is a common experience for God’s people. It is something that God desires to train us to endure. We can face our low state with God’s help, and God’s Word tells us here that we can make peace with this place.
How Do We Endure Feeling Low?
How do we endure being brought low? The next verse tells us: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 ESV). We can endure low seasons by relying on the strength of Jesus, rather than our own.
This word of encouragement in the Bible directly contradicts the world’s counsel. The world tells us that something is very wrong when we feel low; the Bible tells us to expect “low” as a part of life. The world offers us supplements and subscriptions and sleeping pills and stimulants and all sorts of means of escaping feeling low; the Bible teaches us how to endure feeling low.
The Bible tells us that being brought low at times is part of God’s plan for us. God doesn’t give us a prescription for getting back to normal, but a Person—Jesus—who walks with us through the valley, providing for all our needs for as long as our “low” lasts (Psalm 23:4).
Jesus has deep compassion for us in this place, for he of all people has been brought to the lowest place. He not only laid aside his glory to become a man but then also laid down his life for us in the most humiliating form of death (Philippians 2:6-8). He did this so that anyone who puts their faith in him might be saved from the punishment our sins deserve—eternity in the lowest hell—and be brough instead into loving friendship with God for this life and into eternity.
Friend, are you low today? Rather than letting your sense of need scare you, or your state discourage you, or looking anxiously for escape, may you seek the strength that only Jesus supplies. Jesus delights to be your strength, just as he delights to be your Savior, if you will trust in him today!
May you take comfort in knowing that the Lord Jesus understands what it is to be brought low. In his love, he is helping you too to “know how to be brought low.” As you trust in Jesus day-by-day to strengthen you in this hard place, may you rejoice knowing that you too will be able to say, “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13 ESV, emphasis added).