It's The Pits !

I'm reading Beth Moore's book "Get Out Of That Pit".  Although I'm only a few pages into it, I have to admit its got me thinking.  I've never thought of myself as living in a pit.  I'm usually a "get this party started" kind of girl.  What caught my attention?  Beth says that sometimes we have lived in the pit for so long, we don't even know we're there.  Hmmmm!

Even though we each have some kind of pit, none of them look the same.  We have all been there, lived there, trying to get out of there or don't know we're there. I ask myself then, Where am I?  Where are you?

According to Beth Moore, you know your in a pit when...you feel stuck.  Isaiah 42:22 says that a pit is a place where you feel trapped.  You tend to feel your only options are to kick and scream  your way out or decide you made your bed, now you have to lie in it.  Psalm 40 adds that a pit is slimy, muddy and mirky.  Together these words say one thing....you cannot get yourself out.  The danger of a pit is that you begin to sink inch by inch.  In Jeremiah 38:6  He describes his pit as a place of sinking down.

As I got to looking to see if I have a pit,  I've discovered I have a pit with three different levels.  Somedays because of circumstances I go to the basement of my pit, its really dark and scary, it has its own WORRY ROOM.  Thats what I do there, I worry, I ask myself "what if", I can only see the negative.

The main level of my pit is not quite so scary, but its the place of discontentment, its where I have pity parties, see the unfairness in life and think on "if onlys".

The upstairs of my pit if full of sunshine, I really want to stay in this warmth of a place, but life happens and downstairs I run.

In her book, Beth says that we can't get out of this pit by ourselves.  She's right,you know.  On our own we will continually run up and down, only to feel wore out and defeated.

The only way to victory against the pit we have made for ourselves is answered in Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  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.  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.