Stay Away From Sticky Clay

“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. 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 40:2–3).

In these verses, David gives us two different vivid word pictures. We often focus on the promise that the Lord can set us up on “a rock”. That is a wonderful picture of God’s gift of forgiveness. We don’t crawl up to the ROCK. When we repent and turn to the Lord, He  picks us up and puts us on the ROCK. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

Coming to Christ provides us with a life that is built on the solid and unmovable nature of the eternal God. No more trudging wearingly through life day after day.

It is the first picture that I often give too little attention to. Before God gives us the blessing of living on the ROCK, He first finds us in the MIRY CLAY. That can be translated as “the mud of the sticky mire.” What an appropriate description of our life before we come to Christ! It isn’t that we can’t make any progress. Life without the Lord is hard and it seems meaningless. It’s like trying to slog through wet sticky mud. It is tiring and dirty. One problem we face is that until we come to Christ walking in the mud somehow seems normal. As the old saying goes “You are satisfied with bread until to taste cake.”

Jesus came to earth in order to “… free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:15). Until we come to Christ, we will never understand the joy and freedom that He has prepared for us. That’s because “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2).

Before we enjoy that freedom, we must first believe by faith that what the Lord tells us true. But when we put our full trust in the Lord, then we learn that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Is trying to make sense of the drudgery of your everyday life wearing you out? Repent and turn to Jesus. He will give your life real meaning. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:6).