Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.....
O God, you know my folly. The wrongs I have done are not hidden from You.
Let not those who hope in You be put to shame through me, O God of hosts. Let not those who seek You be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. (Verses 1-3; 5-6)
It matters to God how we endure the struggle. And it matters to others who are watching us. I know that in many of my trials my handling of them hasn't been a pretty sight. Waters up to my neck, my feet kicking and as I gasp for breath I accuse God and man for my calamity. Victimize myself as I cry....instead of cry out. Oh, yes. I have done this. I have walked over the rim of the pit and fallen into mud so thick I couldn't step out of it. Weary with the fight, I have given up. And I sat there, parched and hopeless, waiting for my God. I will not hide this fact from you or from my Father. I have been a complete mess. You probably have, too. Even if you won't admit it.
So there are the two problems. We are all messes. Broken. In need of deliverance and salvation. Either we own up to it or we play like we are all that. However we handle our own carnality and propensity for sin, the world is watching us. Because we say we have a Savior Who changes our lives. Because there is a standard by which we claim to live. Other Christians judge our relationship with Christ this way, too. Some of them cannot take the honest reality that we are still human and make mistakes. We are then set up to be super-human instead of sinners in need of a Savior.
As a maturing child of God, I must be aware that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are judging God by judging me. When the flood waters come, will I drown? If I do, will I still rely on Christ to turn it around for me? Or will I shake my fist in His face and rue the day I was born? Will I pretend I am not struggling? Wave at those watching my struggle and say, falsely, that this doesn't even hurt? What standard of truth has that set for them when the mud is thick and the waters too swift? Will their hopes be dashed because I didn't show those who have just trusted our God that I am imperfect in the flood but He is not? The point is, we can't save ourselves where there is no foothold. We have to be rescued. It is God we wait for, not our own self-righteousness.
My children watch. My friends and neighbors are looking out their windows. The church is judging my relationship with Christ by how I do in the hurricane. Was my faith a crock? Did I stumble right into that pit designed by the enemy for my destruction? I pray for a walk that others can follow. It hasn't always been so. God knows my weaknesses and failures. But they have instructed and informed my choices today. What I want is for them to follow me as I follow Christ..not follow me over a cliff. I am all of Christ that some know today. My hope in Him should be contagious. My life foster faith instead of failure. And if I trip and fall, I need to admit it. Get up and go forward again instead of lying there in the mire bemoaning the fact I didn't get it right. Those watching me won't get it right sometimes, either. They need to know my God still loves me...and them. That He gets the hose out and washes me down, chastises my stupidity if need be, then sends me back out to try again to trust in a way that makes Him proud.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12
O God, you know my folly. The wrongs I have done are not hidden from You.
Let not those who hope in You be put to shame through me, O God of hosts. Let not those who seek You be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. (Verses 1-3; 5-6)
It matters to God how we endure the struggle. And it matters to others who are watching us. I know that in many of my trials my handling of them hasn't been a pretty sight. Waters up to my neck, my feet kicking and as I gasp for breath I accuse God and man for my calamity. Victimize myself as I cry....instead of cry out. Oh, yes. I have done this. I have walked over the rim of the pit and fallen into mud so thick I couldn't step out of it. Weary with the fight, I have given up. And I sat there, parched and hopeless, waiting for my God. I will not hide this fact from you or from my Father. I have been a complete mess. You probably have, too. Even if you won't admit it.
So there are the two problems. We are all messes. Broken. In need of deliverance and salvation. Either we own up to it or we play like we are all that. However we handle our own carnality and propensity for sin, the world is watching us. Because we say we have a Savior Who changes our lives. Because there is a standard by which we claim to live. Other Christians judge our relationship with Christ this way, too. Some of them cannot take the honest reality that we are still human and make mistakes. We are then set up to be super-human instead of sinners in need of a Savior.
As a maturing child of God, I must be aware that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are judging God by judging me. When the flood waters come, will I drown? If I do, will I still rely on Christ to turn it around for me? Or will I shake my fist in His face and rue the day I was born? Will I pretend I am not struggling? Wave at those watching my struggle and say, falsely, that this doesn't even hurt? What standard of truth has that set for them when the mud is thick and the waters too swift? Will their hopes be dashed because I didn't show those who have just trusted our God that I am imperfect in the flood but He is not? The point is, we can't save ourselves where there is no foothold. We have to be rescued. It is God we wait for, not our own self-righteousness.
My children watch. My friends and neighbors are looking out their windows. The church is judging my relationship with Christ by how I do in the hurricane. Was my faith a crock? Did I stumble right into that pit designed by the enemy for my destruction? I pray for a walk that others can follow. It hasn't always been so. God knows my weaknesses and failures. But they have instructed and informed my choices today. What I want is for them to follow me as I follow Christ..not follow me over a cliff. I am all of Christ that some know today. My hope in Him should be contagious. My life foster faith instead of failure. And if I trip and fall, I need to admit it. Get up and go forward again instead of lying there in the mire bemoaning the fact I didn't get it right. Those watching me won't get it right sometimes, either. They need to know my God still loves me...and them. That He gets the hose out and washes me down, chastises my stupidity if need be, then sends me back out to try again to trust in a way that makes Him proud.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12
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