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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