Looking Up From the Pit : A Free Audio Devotional

Looking Up From the Pit : A Free Audio Devotional 

While in the pit of despair, we hate that phrase don’t we? Of course we are looking up! Only, when we do look up from the pit all we see is a nasty hole above us. We know the way out, but we can’t get there. So we just resign to stop looking up to what we can’t grasp. 

Have you ever felt so utterly afraid you couldn’t even look up? What did you do? We all have our coping mechanisms. We are women who get things done and keep on living and breathing. Deep in our souls we know our hearts are still living in this pit. 

Do you know someone else who lived in a pit and found a way out? David, in the Bible, was a man of many emotions. We’ll be talking a lot about David in this book, but for now let’s jump ahead and just find David in the pit. 

The word “pit” is “bowr” in Hebrew. It means cistern or well. It is a man-made dug-out. David was metaphorically in a pit. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never put myself in a hole. At the beach my children like to dig in the sand and we will put our feet and legs in the hole, but that’s the closest I’ve come. My husband once dug a pit in the sand so deep my six-year-old daughter plopped herself inside. She laughed at the game.  

David wasn’t playing games. David was in a dungeon, prison-like pit. Psalm 40:2 says it was a pit made of “mire,” which means mud or filled with mud. Dirty, tired, alone, and trapped, David found himself in a spiritual pit of despair. 

Someone else in the Bible found himself in a real pit or “bowr” – Joseph. In Genesis 37:12-36, we read how Joseph’s own brothers flung him into an actual pit because of their jealousy. A young boy at the time, Joseph surely felt like David. Poor and needy, David and Joseph felt like we do sometimes. Although it is cliché and is so hard, the first step to getting out of the pit is to look up. 

Before you get mad, can I offer one suggestion, look up at the right Person. So many times, while in my pit, I looked for my husband to make me feel better, or my friends. I would search and see if social media or my own children could help me out of the pit. Other times I found I would look to clothes, shoes, or anything I could buy to get me out of the pit. I jokingly called it “shop-therapy.” Or food was always there. Chocolate doesn’t ask questions. Chocolate understands. Right?

Those things make me feel like I’m climbing out of the pit for a moment, but too soon I find myself empty and back again. I know the true answer. You know the answer. God. 

Running to God during our times of despair is easy to talk about, but how do we do it? And how can we keep seeking God in the midst of our fears? How do I find God faithful in the midst of the pit? 

As we look to Scripture for our light while sitting in the pit, we will find God’s faithfulness never changes, even when our circumstances do. Joseph went from being the favored son of a wealthy man to being sold into slavery, and ultimately ended up in prison. Was God still faithful in Joseph’s story? We say yes, because we know the end. 

We don’t know the end of our story, but we do know God is still faithful. The same faithfulness Joseph believed in can be the faithfulness we find. Joseph waited a long time for God to restore him.  At one point Joseph was in prison (forgotten) for two years. 

Waiting patiently is not something we want when trouble, bitterness, storms, and darkness are in our lives. Many times God asks us to wait. In Joseph’s life, although he did what was right and walked with God, God blessed him – but did NOT take him out of the circumstances he was in. Joseph was still put in a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison, and forgotten for two years.

Genesis 40:23 says, “yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him.” Forgotten by everyone but God. Do you feel forgotten by everyone in your pit? You aren’t. God sees you and is with you in your despair. You are remembered too! 

Psalm 105:8 – “He {God} remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations.”

Psalm 112:6 – “For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.”

Psalm 136:23 – “It is he {God} who remembered us in our low estate, for his {God’s} steadfast love endures forever.”

You are not forgotten by God. One of my favorite Psalms during a season of doubt is Psalm 136. Over and over again the psalmist says “for his steadfast love endures forever.” This word for “steadfast love” is actually a word meaning “covenant-keeping love.” God who keeps His promises loves you. He promised to remember you, and He does. 

I recorded this devotional and Psalm 136 below. Listen to it as a reminder that you are not forgotten! You can download the audio version here: 

 

If you have dropbox, save the file from here.

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Sarah E. Frazer is a writer and Bible study mentor at sarahefrazer.com. She is the wife of Jason and mother of five who all serve as full-time missionaries in Honduras. Her passion is to encourage women to fall in love with the Bible. Sarah is the author of several Bible study resources for women. She share tools for deep-rooted Bible study at sarahefrazer.com. Follow her on Instagram (http://www.instagram.com/sarah_e_frazer) and join her free prayer challenge at sarahefrazer.com/prayer