Have You Found Yourself Stuck In A Slimy Pit
Revised Sept. 1, 2020
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Psalm 40:2 NIV)
“Help Granny, I stuck!”
My family and I had been walking along the edge of the lake when I heard my three-year-old granddaughter calling out to me. She had refused to hold my hand, wanting to walk all by herself. She had wondered a bit too far from the edge and had gotten into a low spot therefore she was stuck in the mud.
We laughed and giggled as I pulled her free, sitting her onto firmer ground. This left her covered with mud halfway up to her little knees. “Yucky Granny! Get it off, wash it.” Although she was getting the mud on her while walking along the lakes murky edge, she never realized just how muddy she was until she got stuck and needed help getting out. Once she saw that she was covered in mud our little adventure was over. All she wanted at this point was to be cleansed and set free from all that yuck.
Isn’t this just like our walk with Christ?
I don’t know about you sister, but I have found myself in that slimy pit of mud and mire too many times in my life. Sometimes we think we can make this walk all by ourselves while teetering on the edge of sin. However, we cannot walk on the edge of sin without getting dirty. We are and will always be tempted by sin. Temptation does not come from God because God is not evil, nor does he have anything to do with it. We are tempted by Satan himself who is always whispering into our ears that “this won’t hurt anything’, “ just this one time”, “no one has to know”, always telling us it would be ok to indulge in whatever temptation we are being drawn to.
“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14 NIV).
Temptations are not sins, but when we are “dragged away” by our own evil desires we allow sin to surface. Sin comes from within us, from our old sinful nature. It starts with a thought, we have to stop those thoughts before they enter our hearts and entice us to act upon them because “after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:15 NIV.) Walking along the edge is a dangerous place, we will become enticed to give in bit by bit until we are so stuck that we cannot get out without help. Thankfully though, we do have help, in Jesus. When we become tempted, we can call out to Him and He will provide a way out so that we can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV)
But what happens when we don’t call upon Him soon enough?
When we find ourselves falling into temptation? I can answer this from my past experiences as a young adult. I was walking along the edge of the murky waters, wanting to do things all by myself. It didn’t occur to me that I was getting deeper and deeper into the mud. Everything I was doing was getting me further and further away from God. The further away I became the less content I became. I was constantly looking for something to fill this yearning I had inside, for something to quench that desire that was burning in my heart.
Satisfaction from desires?
Every temptation was luring me into believing I could be satisfied by my own desires (James 1:14-15). However all I was doing was getting more and more mud on me. It wasn’t until I took a good look at myself and my life that I realized I was stuck and needed help getting onto firmer ground. Realizing my sins was the first step. I then had to confess them to God. He then forgave me and washed all that murky mud from my life. (1 John 1:9)
Maybe you too have found yourself in a similar bog. None of us are immune to sin or from Satan’s temptations. We have the choice to either listen to those temptations and act upon them or we can call out to God and ask Him to help us resist them. Remember no matter how far into sin you may have gone, there is nothing you have done that God won’t forgive you of once you trust in Him.
Personal Bogs
Sometimes when we are so deep within our bogs, we feel like maybe our prayers are going unanswered. But we must remember God hears our prayers. My Lord and Savior never gave up on me, nor will He give up on you. Romans 5:8 reminds us while we were still sinners our Lord and Savior demonstrated His love for us by sending His son to wash away our sins. We are cleansed through the sacrifice of His own blood; nothing can take that from us. (Romans 8:38)
When we put our faith in God, no matter what we might be going through, He will always be there to lift us up out of that slimy pit and set our feet on a rock to give us a firm place to stand.
