On Hampton Plantation in coastal South Carolina there used to live an elderly sharecropper, illiterate but very wise. One of his favorite sayings was this: If you ain't in trouble, your prayers ain't got no suction."

The Bible declares that our extremity is God's opportunity. God is most likely to be found at your wit's end, just when you need Him most, when you have run out of answers and almost out of hope.

Consider the great prophets of the Old Testament: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. These were not prosperity prophets. No, they were aroused by God in times of crisis, even of national disaster.

Jesus did not visit this planet when we became good enough to receive him. "While we were yet sinners," says the Bible, "Christ died for the ungodly." He faced us at our worst, and …