12/2/20
I have a confession right up front: Sometimes I fall into a pit. This pit is dark. So very dark and scary. Three evil friends, Fear, Worry, and Anxiety, dug this pit, and I fall right into it. Sometimes I see the pit in front of me and I walk right in on my own accord. Sometimes I'm not paying attention to where I'm going, get distracted, or find I'm looking behind me instead of in front. Sometimes the three evil friends camouflage the pit so well that I don't notice the soft, shifting ground that gives way with pressure and weight. And I fall right in. Right into that deep, dark, slimy pit. Funny, I never find anyone else in the pit. This pit is dug just for me. Sometimes I stay in the pit for a while before I decide that I need to get out before it's too late. Luckily, it's getting shorter and shorter each time. But what I've come to realize is that I cannot get myself out of that pit. I cannot drag myself out or hoist myself up. The walls are slimy and provide no traction to climb myself out. I need help.
If I’m not in a pit, I can find myself surrounded by a dark, dense fog. And most times, I’m not even aware that the fog has descended until it’s too late. If you’ve ever experienced it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is so dense that I can’t see my way out. Like a swimmer taken under by an ocean wave, I’m disoriented, not knowing which way is up so that I can come up for a breath. The fog is streaming with poison, and though I remember that I can pray and use scripture to dispel that darkness, I’m not able to. For some reason, the poison has me paralyzed, just not able to move. Again, if you’ve experienced this darkness around you, you know exactly what I mean.
And just like the pit, I can’t get myself out from under this fog on my own. I need help.
Now, if I’m not in a pit, or surrounded by the fog, then I’m being hunted down by The Blob. To me, the Blob looks like a huge, growing mass of upheaval, change, and an unknown future - threatening to consume me. I remember seeing a science-fiction-horror movie when I was a young girl called The Blob. Do you remember it? It rolls through the town, devouring and consuming the people, growing larger, redder, and more aggressive each time it does so, eventually becoming larger than a building.
That's what I was seeing front of me; this mass of awfulness (this blog that represented a horde of tumult, confusion, disorder, unrest, chaos, upheaval, upset) that is consuming me and everything around me. It looks ominous. It looks defeating. It "looks" that way, and it may even "feel" that way, but it's not! Just like the characters in the movie that found the weakness of the Blob in order to defeat it, I've found the weakness of my personal Blob, too. It is found in 2 Chronicles. 20: 15-17. I’m going to read it and expound on the definition of some of the words. It says, "Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed (shaken up, alarmed, unnerved, unsettled) of this multitude, this horde (roar, tumult, confusion, disorder, unrest, chaos, upheaval, upset), for the battle (this fight) is not yours but God's. You will not need to fight this battle. Stand firm (be in a standing attitude; stand upright and erect; take a stand and hold your ground), hold your position, and see the salvation (the deliverance, welfare, help) of the Lord on your behalf."
So the way to defeat the Blob (or whatever that Blob represents to you – whatever is in front of you that is threatening to devour and consume you) - is to find its weakness. And its weakness – every time - is that “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” God is on the front lines fighting this battle, and He has set an army full of horses & chariots of fire all round you. He sends an ambush against the horde to defeat them before they even have a chance to advance on you. And all you have to do is stand resolute in this truth...then watch Him fight on your behalf.
When I’ve found that I’ve fallen into the pit, I know that I can’t climb out myself – the walls are too steep and slimy. The only thing I can do to help myself in this situation is to simply say, "Jesus, help me." Really. That's all I say. It's all I can say. In Psalm 40, David says, "...He heard my cry. He stooped down to lift me out of danger from the desolate pit I was in, out of the muddy mess I had fallen into. Now He's lifted me up into a firm, secure place and steadied me while I walk along His ascending path." God rescues me, lifts me up and out of the dark pit! He rescues you, my friend! And then He sets us in a place that has solid ground. A place where the foundation is good and steady, not shifting or giving way. On a path that is ascending, moving upward, not downward. This is the promise that reaches down into the pit and rescues.
Now, what about the fog – or that dark, dense cloud that engulfs us? It is here that we need a hand to reach into the darkness and pull us out. If that’s where you are, friend, you can be sure that it’s God’s heart to come to your rescue here, too. Psalm 57:3 says that God reaches down from heaven and saves me. 1 Peter 2:9 says that it is God who called you out of darkness to live in His marvelous light. You were not intended to stay, surrounded by darkness. God has called you out. In Isaiah 41:10, God Himself says, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Will I find myself in another pit? Maybe. Those three evil friends are relentless. Will I find myself numbed by the dark fog that descends upon me expectantly? Perhaps. The enemy is determined to take me down. But faithfully, God is dragging me out of the pit, reaching into the darkness to find me, and bringing His A-game to the battle. Every. Time.
So, what about you? What's your personal enemy that only God can defeat? God says to you, “Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you.” Friend, you can bank on those words spoken to you from Your heavenly Father. Ask Him to open your eyes so that you can see His mighty army surrounding and protecting you. He so wants to strengthen you and to help you. He’s just waiting on your permission. Won’t you ask Him to pull you up from the pit, pull you out of the darkness, and fight that relentless blob that’s threatening to devour you? He can…and He will.
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