THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus

Friday, July 21, 2023

Lord, in Psalm 40, the psalmist depicts his struggles with life issues. Throughout the centuries, his story has resonated with those who face similar battles. The psalmist describes a low point in his life, and how only you could bring him back to fullness of life.

“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire.” — Psalm 40:2a (NLT)

Lord, even believers get depressed. The psalmist called his condition a “pit of despair.” This begs the question: how does a believer fall into a pit of despair? How does one who follows you find themselve knee-deep in the spiritual mud and mire of this dark and gloomy place? Escape seems impossible. The harder we try to pull ourselves out, the deeper we sink into the mire.

Jesus, you said you came to give us life, and life in its fullness (John 10:10), so how did we end up in this pit?

Even as believers, we are spiritually and emotionally broken from time to time. Many battle the horrors of destructive addictions. Maybe in our insistence to do life our way, we willingly ignored your precepts only to find our ways lead to disappointments. Could a spirit of unforgiveness have us in its powerful grip? Or through apathy, has the impact of our salvation waned until one day we wake up in the pit? And we certainly cannot rule out a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes depression.

Keep us close to you, Jesus. Only you can lift us from the pit of despair and heal whatever brokenness put us there in the first place.

Amen, Jesus.