I have never quite understood the ways of God. I have had a glimpse of His goodness, and while I have experienced His mercy, I cannot say I fully understand it. I sense His justice and have a gut feeling that without His justice, I would never have had experienced His mercy. Still, I don’t quite get it. Though, I am not sure that I could worship a God whose ways I fully understood.To me, His ways are full of paradoxes. When we are weak, that’s when He’s strong (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
For us to overcome the power of sin, we must first admit that we are powerless to overcome it (Romans 8:3).
In order that God could set my feet on higher, firmer ground, I first had to hit the bottom, and get mired down, stuck in the clay.
The psalmist expresses it very well…
“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;”
– Psalm 40:2-3a
We’ve all seen movies where the hero gets stuck in quicksand only to be rescued at the last moment. Finding oneself stuck in miry clay is kind of the same thing… Maybe worse. I once helped set forms to pour a basement, and found myself stuck in the thick red clay of the Missouri Ozarks. The concrete mixer truck was backing in, and I was about to be ran over. Yet my feet were stuck in the clay. The job foreman helped pull me out, shouting a few choice words. I lost a boot in the clay, and nearly got hit in the head by the truck’s chute. No one saw a hero that day, just a dumb kid with loose laces.
Many times, God has lifted me out of the clay and set me on higher ground. The choice words He had for me were reminders of His love for me and a promise that He would never leave me or forsake me.
What a loving Father we have…
He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!
He Brought Me Out – lyrics by Henry J. Zelley
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