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Religous: When life’s the pits
Pastor Don Porter
for South Peace News
Many people, if you ask them today, will say their life is the pits!
If you are in the pits, you need to make sure you are not in rebellion against God’s established authority, or aligned with those who are.
In Numbers 16 there is an instructive story of Korah and his followers. They openly confronted Moses and Aaron, and challenged whether they were really God’s chosen leaders.
Moses and Aaron were flawed and prone to mistakes just like every one of us, but Korah wanted to usurp authority that did not belong to him. God had placed Moses and Aaron in their position of authority, but Korah tried to undermine that authority and lead people against them.
Look at the result of Korah’s rebellion. Moses is speaking in verses 30-31, “But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the Earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”
Now as soon as he finished speaking all these words the ground split apart under them, and the Earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. Notice that it was not just Korah who was destroyed. All those who were followed him also went into the pit.
I don’t think the ground is going to open up under you if you rebel against the authority God has set up. But you may find yourself in an emotional, physical, or financial pit that you cannot get out of until you get the rebellion out of you. If you are in a pit today, check your heart and make sure you are not in rebellion against God’s chosen authority.
Another reason you may be in the pits is something that is an increasing problem in the world today. Immorality! Immorality is a deep pit. A pit that is difficult to get out of once you have gotten yourself into it.
If you are in the pits today because of an immoral relationship, you must cut off that relationship before seeking God’s deliverance. If you will ask God for help after you have repented and cut off that relationship, He will help you beyond anything you could imagine.
God is the only One who can break something and make it more valuable. I break things and they lose their value. But when God breaks something, it becomes more valuable. If you are in an immoral relationship, stop it, repent, and He will forgive you, and bring you out of your pit.
The third thing you should check in your life, if you are in the pits, is to make sure you have obeyed God’s warnings. God warns us, but we must listen to those warnings.
As Job 33:14-18 says, “For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction.”
In order to turn man from his wrongdoings, and conceal pride from man, God keeps his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. God always tries to warn us to keep us out of the pits and to keep our lives from danger.
And He speaks in many different ways. Sometimes, as we read here, God will speak to us even through a dream.
As I look at my own life, I can see that I have fallen into pits at various times because I did not listen to God’s warnings. There have been times I have been too busy to perceive the fact that God was talking to me. It wasn’t that God wasn’t warning me. He was. I just had a bunch of other things going on in my life and was not taking time to listen to Him.
He is always faithful to warn us. It’s just that we are not always faithful to listen.
So, if you find yourself in a pit today because you did not heed God’s warning, just say, “God, I’m sorry.” Repent. God will forgive you. And you will be in the position to receive His deliverance.
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