A word from heaven.

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Getting out of the miry clay

Do you remember the song "Jesus, Lover or my soul"? If you don't, i've added it above for you.

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Jesus, I will never let you go
You’ve taken me from the miry clay
You've set my feet upon the Rock, and now i know

I love you, I need you,
Though my world may fall, I’ll never let you go
My Saviour, my closest friend,
I will worship you until the very end

This song was actually derived from the verse below:

He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay; And he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
~ Psalm 40:2 (American Standard Version) ~

Just in case you are wondering what is a miry clay, this is:

In today's context, we use the term "quicksand" more commonly to describe miry clay.

As some Psalm 40 described, its is a horrible pit. People who get stuck inside often die not because they drown (its not possible to drown cause the quicksand is normally twice as dense as your body) but they often die because they can't escape and die a long painful death from the sun or lack of water/food.

Does this describe us sometimes? Not literally stuck in a quicksand but in your life situations. Ever said such sentences before?

"That's it, i'll never be able to get out of this.!"
"I give up changing"
"No amount of effort will be able to change me"
"I'm born like that, I can't get out of it"

There are some strongholds in our lives that we are desperately trying to get out of, but the harder the struggle, the deeper we sink and the more disappointed we get each time we fail to overcome it. Each time we summon every single will power within us to try to break a certain back habit, we improve for a while but after the initial burst of fire, we fall back to our old ways.

We try time and again to get our prayer life consistent once again and time and after a while, when things gets busy, we fail again in this area. There are so many times we told ourselves today is the day, the day where i'll turn my life around, but we fail again and again.

Some of us have failed so many times to get out of the rut that we become so mentally and emotionally exhausted that we give up trying altogether. Let me share with you a story about my prayer life. There was one time i was really convicted about my bad habit of skipping quiet time. I really wanted to spend time with God and i knew i needed it. But somehow, i just can't get myself to have the discipline to do it daily.

I was stuck in the "horrible pit". The more i struggled, the more guilty i felt and the more stuck i got in this miry clay. I gave up praying altogether. I was so disgusted with my own prayer life that i gave up looking at that area altogether.

But i thank God there is a 2nd part to Psalm 40. It says that "he set my feet upon a rock and established my goings (gave me a firm place to stand in NIV)" So what is the rock we are talking about here? I believe we're talking about God's words and biblical advice. As i said yesterday, change requires more then a choice. Let's take a look at some of the rocks to change...

1) Remember God's promise towards your past.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
~ Romans 8:1-2 ~

2) Remember God's character

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
~ Lamentations 3:22-23 ~

3) No longer part of the kingdom of darkness

Remember that you have switch allegiance from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You are no longer to be controlled by sin but by the Holy Spirit.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
~ Romans 8:9-10 ~

4) Set certain physical boundaries to help you change

If i want to pray more, i can make sure that before i can on my computer, i at least spend sometime with God.

If i want to start journaling, i make sure that my journal is on my table beside my bible always.

If i want to quit smoking, i throw away my cigarette pack and make sure that i stay away from my friends who always offer me a stick.

The physical boundaries have to be as extensive as possible. Sit down and design the physical boundaries not only around the current temptations but future foreseeable temptations (e.g. Exam period) as well. Continually refine this list as God allows you more to experience more temptations.

5) Keep yourself accountable to someone

Be ruthless in this. Be ruthlessly accountable to someone even to the most minute details of the temptation and struggle. Changing is tough enough, changing alone makes it even more difficult.

6) Progress towards the change, not jump towards it.

We live in a generation of instant success and instant change. When we say we are convicted to change, or when we see our sheep say he is convicted to change, it does not mean that it will happen overnight. Its the start of a process. So may a times we see the end and we want to hit the end but we do not come up with a proper plan on how to progress towards the end. And finally when we don't see the ideal change anywhere near, we give up on ourselves.

Never give up on yourself! Don't be like me and give up on a certain area of weakness or an area we want to change in our life. We have to learn to "out stubborn" the devil when it comes to breaking off the bondage or strong hold he has in our lives. Or else we'll never be truly free yeah? Sometimes, things may take time.

Give yourself time and space to breath and take a step at a time yet have the urgency to change. Slow change is better then no change yeah? Back to the example of prayer. I may not start off with praying 7 days a week. Maybe as i struggle, i prayed 3 days this week. I account this to my mentor and we see how we can bring it to 4 days. Then 5 days. Then slowly 6 days and eventually 7 days.

However, this is not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot show you the light like how he showed Paul the light. what i am saying is that if it does not come at the click of a finger, don't give up, continue to work towards it, you'll reach it one day...

7) Holy Spirit Convicts

Finally, I had to continually allow the Holy Spirit and my mentors to speak to me about this area of my life. After all, it is the Holy Spirit who will be able to show you the rock and the solid ground to which you can step on to lift you out of the "horrible pit"

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
~ 2 Timothy 1:14 ~

That's all i have for you today. God Bless you.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Christian Living

The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

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Thursday, July 17, 2008