A hole of your own making

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Scripture

He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made.
(Psalms 7:15 NASB)

Observation

The Psalmist is speaking here about those who do evil. They have dug a pit and most certainly have made it a large one, never being content with something simple. What is this pit? Often it's the path that we begin to take when we are disobedient to the leading of the Lord. We begin down a path of of deceit and along the way there have to be more and greater lies to keep up the facade. Eventually the hole which we have dug becomes increasingly large and no longer are we able to step over or around it, but we simply fall in. It seems that at that moment is when we cry out to God and ask him why he has placed us in this hole.

Application

Looking back we realize that God has not placed us in this hole, but rather, we have taken ourselves down this path. However, to get out of the hole means that we must stop blaming others for our current state of affairs. Standing in the hole and yelling out at everyone who passes by that it's their fault that you're down there won't get you out. If anything you will offend those who may have been able to have pulled you out. Instead, maybe it's time to look humbly on your circumstances and realize that you have gotten yourself in this mess. When we get to that point, we are able to cry out for help. We are able to realize that we are sinners, we are lost, and we are in need of a Savior. We can reach out our hands and grasp the hands of the one who is just waiting to pull us out of the pit (when we get over our little tantrum!).

What holes have we dug for ourselves, and our pride keep us from getting out? Maybe it's not living in gross sin, but maybe it's poor decisions about our finances, our health, relationships, or our worship. Have we dug ourselves into a spiritual hole where we have decided how we are going to live our spiritual life and how we are going to worship. Maybe we're sitting down in our own spiritual hole as the Holy Spirit passes by and instead of reaching out and joining into the stream or movement of the Holy Spirit we are content to just let the Spirit go on without us. The Cappadocians said to not move forward spiritually is to sin. We seem to only want to equate sin with the big evil things of the world, but if we have dug a spiritual hole and have hunkered down and are refusing to grow, then that may be sin for us. Have we fallen into a hole of our own making?

Prayer

Lord, please help to look to you with humility on a daily basis. Please, don't allow my pride to keep me from the movement of your Spirit. Amen.

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