Deliver me from sinking in the mire. Let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.
Answer me, O Lord, for Your steadfast love is good. According to Your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me. Ransom me because of my enemies! (Verses 14-18)
Stuck? Sinking? Feel like you are being swept along in the flood waters with no recourse? Fallen so deep into a pit that you can't see daylight? Life offers us in varied measure deep wells and damning deluges. Grief, loss, death, betrayal, abandonment, financial ruin...just to name a few. But some of the things which keep our feet in the miry clay are not that obvious. Stinking thinking might be one. Listening to a tape recorder, installed by the enemy, looping in our heads agreements we have made with him that are lies. Ways of behaving that we excuse because "that's just the way I am." Being comfortable in our shame because it allows us to continue sick or abusive behavior. The inability to move forward in relationships or careers because we are quaking with fear. All of these plunge us into deep waters, too. Captured and carried along in the same old rising tide. Drowning in a swirling river or despairing in the rancid pit. Either way, we are inert.
First we have to know our condition. I think, in this world, there are so many who have succumbed to the notion they are doing just fine as they drown that we might be numbed to the knowledge we need to be saved from anything. Salvation is an "old timey" word that doesn't carry much meaning. People are partying in the pit and dancing on its rim without recognizing it for the hell it is. So, what then? Rehabs are overflowing with souls overwhelmed in the flood or trying to come up for air from the depths of their captivity. On some level there is ultimately a tipping point and we are out of control. Desperate. Needing a hand to reach down and pull us to safety lest we perish.
It is no surprise to me that the most successful rehabilitation programs are based on calling on God for His help. Dr. Gerald May, in his book ADDICTION AND GRACE, said that after all the years he worked with addicts, none truly was set free without the obvious working of God's grace. No progress until the Lord chose to look on the one who cried out and offer His mercy to her captivity. There is no pleading our righteousness. That won't fly. Just mercy, Lord, mercy! If You don't save us, we will die. We must be ransomed from the enemy who made us slaves. Redeemed. Bought back. It will cost us as it cost Him. God will do something to make it possible for us to swim to shore or climb out of the pit because His love is unfathomably deep and His mercy beyond understanding. But we need to know we need salvation. That Jesus Christ is our ransom, paid in full. We have been redeemed from the flood and rescued from the pit by His substitutionary death. And we must be willing to leave the pit! We can't drag our old life into the new. It must be left there and we have to trust that the One Who swam to give us a hand can lead us to drier, higher ground.
If you really want deliverance, stop whining about how hard it is and start crying out to the only One capable of pulling you out of the mire in which you are stuck. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved! Romans 10
Answer me, O Lord, for Your steadfast love is good. According to Your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me. Ransom me because of my enemies! (Verses 14-18)
Stuck? Sinking? Feel like you are being swept along in the flood waters with no recourse? Fallen so deep into a pit that you can't see daylight? Life offers us in varied measure deep wells and damning deluges. Grief, loss, death, betrayal, abandonment, financial ruin...just to name a few. But some of the things which keep our feet in the miry clay are not that obvious. Stinking thinking might be one. Listening to a tape recorder, installed by the enemy, looping in our heads agreements we have made with him that are lies. Ways of behaving that we excuse because "that's just the way I am." Being comfortable in our shame because it allows us to continue sick or abusive behavior. The inability to move forward in relationships or careers because we are quaking with fear. All of these plunge us into deep waters, too. Captured and carried along in the same old rising tide. Drowning in a swirling river or despairing in the rancid pit. Either way, we are inert.
First we have to know our condition. I think, in this world, there are so many who have succumbed to the notion they are doing just fine as they drown that we might be numbed to the knowledge we need to be saved from anything. Salvation is an "old timey" word that doesn't carry much meaning. People are partying in the pit and dancing on its rim without recognizing it for the hell it is. So, what then? Rehabs are overflowing with souls overwhelmed in the flood or trying to come up for air from the depths of their captivity. On some level there is ultimately a tipping point and we are out of control. Desperate. Needing a hand to reach down and pull us to safety lest we perish.
It is no surprise to me that the most successful rehabilitation programs are based on calling on God for His help. Dr. Gerald May, in his book ADDICTION AND GRACE, said that after all the years he worked with addicts, none truly was set free without the obvious working of God's grace. No progress until the Lord chose to look on the one who cried out and offer His mercy to her captivity. There is no pleading our righteousness. That won't fly. Just mercy, Lord, mercy! If You don't save us, we will die. We must be ransomed from the enemy who made us slaves. Redeemed. Bought back. It will cost us as it cost Him. God will do something to make it possible for us to swim to shore or climb out of the pit because His love is unfathomably deep and His mercy beyond understanding. But we need to know we need salvation. That Jesus Christ is our ransom, paid in full. We have been redeemed from the flood and rescued from the pit by His substitutionary death. And we must be willing to leave the pit! We can't drag our old life into the new. It must be left there and we have to trust that the One Who swam to give us a hand can lead us to drier, higher ground.
If you really want deliverance, stop whining about how hard it is and start crying out to the only One capable of pulling you out of the mire in which you are stuck. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved! Romans 10
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