Out of the Muck

 I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. 

He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay;

and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 

And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;

many will see and fear, and will trust in the Lord.  -Psalm 40:1-3

 Have you ever been stuck in the muck?  I remember a time growing up when I was helping our neighbor on his dairy farm.  While working in his milk barn we saw that some of the cows had gotten loose, so we headed out in opposite directions to round them up and get them back into their pen.  While I was walking behind one of his barns, I came across an elevated area of about three feet high that stretched out for about fifty feet.  The escaped cows were on the other side of this area, so I headed directly towards them.  The surface was quite hard as I began walking across it, but when I got directly in the middle, I quickly sank.  You see, this was the cow manure that had been scraped out of the barns – it was warm and thick, and I had found myself stuck up to my waist in the muck.  My neighbor was nowhere to be seen, so I attempted to get myself out.  As I tried pulling up my one leg, the pressure held my boots and out came my foot.  My boot quickly filled with manure.  The same happened with my other boot, only this time I lost my balance and fell in.  Surveying my dilemma, I quickly realized that I was stuck and couldn’t get out (all this time the cows were watching with what seemed like amusement), so I began calling out for help.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, my neighbor showed up, and after he stopped laughing at my expense, he went to get a rope with which to pull me out.  You will never realize how happy I was to get out of that muck (though the smell was with me for a few days)! 

You know, apart from Christ, our lives are just like the situation I just described.  We are stuck in the muck.  Even after giving our lives to Christ we can often find ourselves stuck in the muck because we simply fail to look to Him.  The verses above are a wonderful truth to what God does for those who look and call out to Him.   When we find ourselves stuck in the muck of life, we need to cry out to Him for help.  Many times people realize they are stuck in the muck but fail to cry out.  Why?  Many times it’s because they are too proud to ask for help or they simply like the warm feeling that the muck provides – “Hey, it’s comfortable, it’s familiar, and anyway, I can put up with the smell”, we reason to ourselves.  Then there are those who call out for help but grow impatient and begin attempting to get themselves out of the muck, only to find themselves sinking deeper.

To cry out for help is to realize the desperate dilemma we are in and that we cannot rescue ourselves, no matter how hard we try.  When we cry out to God, we must then wait patiently, knowing that He alone can help us and His timing is the best.  Oh, and how wonderful it is when He does rescue us – He sets our feet upon firm ground, better yet, on The Rock – Jesus Christ Himself – never to sink again if we will just look to Him.

Are you stuck in the muck?  Cry out to God and wait for Him.  He knows your dilemma.  He alone can help you.  He doesn’t just throw you a rope; He comes in and lifts you up personally and places you in Him – secure and safe – and makes you sing for joy with a new song of praise to Him alone.

By God's Grace ~ Through God's Word ~ For God's Glory!

Chuck Long

©God’sGWG
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