Saturday, May 20, 2023

 

Don’t Keep Digging a Deeper Hole for Yourself  


One day I was trying to get rid of a reminder message that kept popping up on our video projector at the church. Somehow I managed to push a wrong button, suddenly switching the words on the main menu from English to some other language that I couldn’t read. I panicked, pushed more buttons, only to change other settings, and see the screen get modified further and further from its original position. The more I tried, the more I kept digging myself into a deeper and deeper hole.

If we are not careful, we can do something similar when it comes to spiritual matters and seeking a remedy for that sense that our hearts are not right with our Creator. We can try to do good things in an effort to make up for our wrong actions of the past. We can try to find our own way out of our sin and selfish behaviors. We may try to excuse ourselves or seek to get society to tell us that what we are doing is acceptable. However, the more we attempt to find our way out of sin and into the favor of God by our own means, the further we sink into a pit of our own making.

The Bible reminds us that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). Apart from the help of God, we can’t even understand enough to get on the right pathway to God. It is like the directions are in a foreign language. We may hear people talk about being saved or getting born again, but it makes no sense. We may read Bible verses, but their meaning doesn’t click with us. So how do we find our way out of such a predicament?

I finally got our projector issue resolved. I calmed down, went back to the basic menu, and methodically searched through the unreadable options until one of them resulted in the language switching. Eventually I got it back into English. From there I was able to restore all the other settings I had messed up along the way.

In our spiritual journey, we are not going to get anywhere until we are willing to listen to the Spirit of God. “Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (I Corinthians 2:9-10). We need to listen as the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and calls us to repentance. We need to pay attention to what He has said through the eternal truths He has revealed to the inspired writers of the Bible. We need to get back to the basic message God’s Spirit has witnessed to – that the only way to be saved from our sin and get our hearts right with God is through faith in the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

Without our listening to God’s Spirit and our submitting to His working in our lives, there is no escape from our lost condition. We are stuck, spinning our wheels in a never-ending futile effort to be good enough to win God’s favor or to rid ourselves of the sins in our lives. We will just keep sinking deeper and deeper until we are willing to hear the truth and let the Holy Spirit do a work of transformation in our hearts. Let God’s Spirit guide you onto the right way.

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