Slipping in the Mud Puddle

Slipping in the Mud Puddle

               We mentioned before that our feet determine and speak of that way in which we walk.  How is our walk with Christ today? Are we walking on solid rock or are we going through the slippery places.  Sometimes with our walk in Christ our feet take us and land us where we would not choose to go in the natural.  There are times we get in those places where we get bogged down in the miry clay of life and the world around us.  We know we are not where we want to be or where we should be, but our feet are stuck.  We can’t seem to move out of that place.  We are like in a pit and can’t get out; we keep slipping back in.  David experienced that place.  He shares in Psalms 40:1-4, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 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. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.”  No matter what you are going through.  No matter how defeated or discouraged with yourself or others that you have become, keep your heart and eyes on Jesus.  You may have strongholds in your life that are keeping you in sin and you can’t seem to get free.  You may hate yourself for who you are, what you have done or what you are doing.  God hasn’t forsaken you.  He sees your heart.  He sees your need and He knows your weakness.  He can lift you up out of that pit if you are willing and desiring to walk in the paths of righteousness.  Humble yourself and seek Him.  Seek out the help you need and that which He has provided for you in His body through the gifting He has given to those who can help you get free and deliver you out of your slippery pit.  Don’t let condemnation and the accuser rob you of the deliverance that God has for you.  He is greater than your weakness and He can restore your feet to the paths of righteousness. 

               Again, in Psalms, David speaks of a time when his feet almost slipped.  As he beheld the wicked, it seemed that they prospered and got fat and nothing bad ever seemed to happen to them.  Have we ever coveted the world?  Here we are struggling and going through trials and tribulations and those living in the world seem to be the ones that really have the good life.  In Psalm 73 David speaks of the way that his feet were taking him, as his heart was drawn to this seeming paradox.  “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.  5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. 7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. 8 They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. 9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. 10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. 11 They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” 12 This is what the wicked are like— always carefree, they increase in wealth. 13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. 14 All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. 16 When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me 17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. 18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!”  While the walk of the godly man or woman is difficult and often filled with hardship, God is simply preparing you for an inheritance that is so much greater than all of the riches of the world and the prosperity of the wicked.  Their eternal end is bitterness, anguish and suffering; yours is an eternal inheritance with riches stored up in heaven beyond what your mind can imagine.  As Jesus says in John 6:27, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

               The world and all of it ways can begin to look pretty good to us, but we must maintain our vision that we are strangers and so-journers in the land till the Lord comes to reign in righteousness upon the earth.  Isaiah 26: 1-8 says it like this, “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. 2 Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. 3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. 5 He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground

and casts it down to the dust. 6 Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. 7 The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth. 8 Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.”  This is how the Lord encourages His people to be steadfast and abounding in a walk where our feet abide and continue in a righteous walk.  While it is a walk of humility it will open up into place of authority and dominion.  He tells His people in Isaiah 49:23, “Kings will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” Again, in Isaiah 60:14 it says, “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”  So, why would we want to envy the wicked or the high places of this earth?  Your position, your authority and your dominion in Christ is so much higher and so much greater than the best that the earth can offer.  Keep your feet steadfast in His ways.

Blessings,

#kent

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