I love our lesson today, sounds like a love letter from a sister warning us of some danger. As we are all reading together from Get Out of That Pit, by Beth Moore, she hits us with the hard truth right away.
“Jumping in the pit is the Third and final way you can land in a pit.
Unlike the second route into a pit, you didn’t just slip in before you knew what was happening. You had time to think, and then you did exactly what you meant to do even if the pit turned out to be deeper and the consequences higher than you hoped.”
Beth assures us she’s “not talking down to us. Just straight talk from a fellow pit-dweller. If you are a confirmed pit-jumper, you’ve probably got a pretty serious authority problem over all.”
Self proclaimed, amateur psychologist Beth says, “That your primary authority figure was or is either a wimp or a fraud.”
God is neither. He knows what it will take to get your attention, and He’s willing to do it. Trust me, I know first hand. We all know the game we play with one another as we make excuses for our actions.
You ordinarily jump in a pit because you like the trip. It looks good. It feels good. Or it tastes good. “Like a drug,” Beth says, “it just doesn’t last long enough, which is why we come back and take the next trip.”
From experience, Beth tell us, “It almost killed me. In fact did kill the old me.”
- Job 33:29-30 says,
- “God does all these things to a man-twice, even three times-to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.”
God brought Beth to a place where she was willing to do anything to get out of the pit and everything to stay out. She remembers, “to be out of the mud and mire and have my feet upon a rock became what I wanted more than anything in the world.”
She wants that more than anything else in the world for us, to cry out to God for deliverance before we reach the point she did. God in His mercy, gives us plenty of warnings enabling us to avoid pits, but the problem with us pit-jumpers we don’t want to hear those warnings. We want what we want.
Jumping into the pit is by far the most dangerous and most consequential. Motive and character are huge to God. We were created to emulate His Character. He looks into the heart.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9 says:
- “The Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.”
Some of our motive might be:
- I wanted to steal that wallet.
- I meant to cheat the company.
- I wanted to go to bed with that person.
- I wanted to have the affair.
- I wanted to take vengeance.
- I set out to hurt that person.
- I went into that relationship knowing full well beliefs were different or that they had a dark side and a dark past.
- I wanted to experience something illicit
- I want to get drunk, get high.
Get the picture, my friend! We recognize some of these examples or forms of them don’t we? Psalms 19:13 calls it “willful sins or blatant rebellion”. Ouch!
Beth assures us that she, “knows for a fact you can be completely set free from every sin that rules over you”. I couldn’t agree more. I too have been set free. Praise God.
To get there we only need:
- Some deep repentance (a change of mind resulting in a change of direction)
- Some marrow-deep healing
Or we will simply change right back. The name for this pit is Evil Desires.
- A strong or passionate desire.
- Also a “deformed desire.” (New American Commentary)
Our desires can be tremendously unhealthy, self-destructive.
We were created out of Holy Passion for Holy Passion.
If we don’t find it in Christ, we will find it in things like lust, anger, rage, and greed. Never under estimate the power of desire.
Ps 40:8 “I delight to do our will, O God my God:/Your Law is within my heart” (NASB)
We just don’t trust God to provide for what we think we need. Our drive for the proverbial forbidden fruit is our innate belief that what we are denied is exactly what we want most.
Proverbs 22:14 warns, “The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit.” (ESV)
If God forbids something, the sooner we believe and confess it’s for our sakes, the better off we will be.
Forbidden relationships never turn out well. Never! The pit is deep and dark.
- Learn to associate darkness with a pit.
- Listen to the Holy Spirit.
- Repent and RUN!
Ephesians 4:27 warns, “Do not give the devil a foothold.”
Beth assures us, “I may walk with a Spiritual limp, but thanks be to God, who holds me up and urges me to lean on Him. At least I can walk. So can you-Walk away from that pit before it is the death of you.”
With love, Beth
Well fellow pit-dwellers we have our work cut out for us. I have been set free from some of these pits but there are a couple I jump right back in. Usually in three days I realize it and start the long hard climb back out but not always. Like Beth said. We enjoy doing what we want to do, well until we realize how hurtful or painful it is getting our will.
See you Wednesday for Chapter 5 Getting out of Your Pit. A shorter chapter. This one was long but had such good correction for us. Until then, to God Be the Glory!
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