How do you unwind at the end of the day? How do you deal with questions from the day? How do you deal with ambitions that perhaps are not the Lords, but your own? It seems sometimes that we are like sticks in the mud, at least to me it does.
Firstly we seem to be tainted with the mud that we have grown up with. Our memories and our experiences shape how we are today, and it seems that sometimes this mud sticks and is very hard to get off. I seem to have memories that are set, they have a place in my memory and they keep popping up. Perhaps these are negative memories, perhaps they are good, but they are there.
Secondly we seem at times to be stuck in the mud. It is thick and very hard to pull your feet out of it, and once you do you step right down into another puddle which swamps your feet and you are stuck once again. These are fears keeping us in the same place, perhaps a safe place, but certainly not stepping out for Jesus. We are imprisoned.
7 Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”
Let me tell you that I believe we confine ourselves to prisons that are self imposed. If you think about the serpent in the garden of Eden. He didn’t really do anything but talk. He kept some of the truth but craftily changed some to put doubt in their minds. I believe he still does this today, this hour he is on this planet. He can do nothing to hurt us just like he couldn’t do anything back then, but he craftily talks and puts doubt into our lives so that we confine ourselves into prisons that are self made. We hold ourselves back, we are like sticks in the mud.
Do we forget that God created us from the mud, from the very essence of the earth, its raw matter, and he created us, shaped us and before you doubt again tonight that God loves you, He breathed His Spirit into humankind at the creation
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
and He breaths His holy Spirit through Jesus through the new and perfect covenant.
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyedwhen they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
The mud is thick, but come the morning and the heat of the sun it drys up and falls off.
Jesus is the true light, how much more can He cleanse us from all our past sin and recriminations, from doubts and fears, he gives strength in the light and he gives purpose.
Dear Lord, I am yours. Do what you will with me for your Glory.
Amen
365 Exhortations 