Imagine being trapped in a room with dark, looming walls towering above your head. Those tall, dark walls slowly move closer and closer together, until suddenly you’re left with no more space than what your body takes up. Now you’re stuck being crushed by those dark walls, and you barely have any space to move to the side or turn around.

And not only that, but the ceiling keeps lowering toward your head. Now you don’t even have room to rise up on your tip-toes… you’re completely boxed in.

Ok, you can stop imagining now. I bet those of you who are claustrophobic stopped reading at the second or third sentence, but there was a point to that uncomfortable image I painted.

Our lives often feel like we are in an ever-shrinking box, don’t they?

You’re slammed with one tragedy after another, the pain piles on like autumn leaves covering the front yard, and you’re trying desperately to find emotional breathing room. Your prayers hit the ceiling and fall back to the ground, you feel as if you’re trying to walk on top of waves instead of standing on the Rock, and you can’t find the words to explain to people what you’re going through— or even if you can, they don’t always understand.

Is there no hope for you? Will the walls continue to close in on you until your very breath is taken from your lungs?

I have good news for you. The walls don’t have to keep closing in, and as a matter of fact, you’ve been given the power to push the walls back.

Go back to imagining that claustrophobia-causing room for a few seconds, and picture the moment right before the walls close in so tight that you can’t move.

The wall to your right has writing on it; that writing tells you that nights of pain and years of tears are all you will ever experience.

The wall to your left is filled with reminders of the smiling faces you see on other people, and pictures of the wonderful lives they seem to lead. You wonder, “Will that ever be my story? Why does everyone else seem so carefree and perfect, while my journey never has a happy ending?”

You turn around to the wall that you have your back towards. These are written with accusations from your past… accusations of failure, sinfulness and inconsistency. It tells you that you’ll never be worthy of anyone’s love and forgiveness, let alone God’s.

Finally, you turn back around and face the wall closing in on your face. This wall is one big mural, but the colors are frightening — not joyful like most murals. There is bright, angry red coming from a Being that looks like God, combined with a thought bubble in blinding white. That thought bubble contains the words, “You are my enemy! You do not measure up to My standards, and you never will! For that you must pay; you will pay through pain, disappointment, and finally death.”

You can stop thinking about that horrifying room now.

I hope not many of you can visualize it well, but sadly, I think you’ll be able to. If you’re not in a season of doubt and fear right now, you’re probably able to see right through the lies written on those walls. That’s a good thing! But for those of you who are in a horribly painful season of your life and faith, I know that felt all too real.

But remember, I told you we have power to push the ever-encroaching walls back to where they came from. Let me show you how.

You’re back in that terrifying room, but you notice something new about it.The wall to your right has now been painted over with a few words in bold, and you feel as if you’ve read these words before.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

It seems as if all the walls have been painted over, and you turn to your left to see what new words are featured there. You start to smile as you recognize the old, familiar words of Jeremiah and David.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29: 11

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” – Psalm 23:5-6

On the wall to your back, there is a new, bright painting of a loving Savior with open arms alongside the words,

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punish due according to our iniquities… As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” Psalm 103:10, 12

Feeling as if the air’s returning to your lungs, you turn around one last time to the front-facing wall. You start to wonder if this could all really be true, and a part of you doubts that this wall will have changed at all. But look — a large picture of three crosses on a hill, with the Cross in the middle larger than the two on either side of it. There’s a Man hanging on that old, rugged Cross, and three simple words are seen coming out of His mouth.

It is finished.

If you’re a suffering Christian right now, don’t give up. Push back and fight against those walls of doubt and fear; fight with the promises God has given us. As a child of God you’ll never be alone again, and nothing is impossible for Him.