Sunday, October 27, 2024

Saved From The Pit By Sharon Musgrove #Devotional

 

Saved From The Pit

By Sharon Musgrove

“Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:11b (MSG)

 When I was a little girl, my family moved into a newly constructed home in which the yard had yet to be landscaped. In fact, we had a large pit in the mud that was our backyard. This was a time before fences divided and the neighbors had sightlines into the business of every home.

Mom laid down the law, stating that we could play anywhere except near that hole. The entire subdivision was my playground... the old weeping willow tree with its tire-swing, the open field of the high school across the street, the heap of rocks belonging to the old couple with the dog... all of this was acceptable territory.

And yet curiosity piqued.

At the bottom of that forbidden cavity a puddle resided. Its shiny surface creating a mirror to the sky above. My young mind did not understand water tables but could conjure up mysteries beyond and below the water’s surface. This very crater could have been the passageway to China!

And while I knew the boundary that had been set by my parents, I wanted to know what secret lay at the bottom of that well. So, one day, alone, I went to peer into the ditch and into it I fell.

I screamed in terror of falling to the other side of the world and forever away from home. Mother came running.

Once saved from the pit, unharmed, her interrogation began. What was I thinking? Why had I disobeyed? Did I not know she was protecting me from harm? Out of the garden and into the shelter of the house I was disciplined. At four years old I had no answers to mother’s questions, but the guilt and shame I felt in my wrongdoing stuck like tar on my skin for years.  

Eventually I understood this to be a “fall of man” experience. I was Adam with clear boundaries, and I was Eve, seduced to take part in the forbidden. And I did the one thing I was told not to do, thinking that somehow the end would justify the means.

Reading mankind’s original sin story found in Genesis 3 of the Bible, is not meant to be an exercise in learning how life could have been if “those people” hadn’t messed up. Rather it’s the telling of our everyday decision-making, and how God interacts with us continually in those choices. Each pass through this scripture gives us opportunity to honestly answer the pointed questions about our behavior.

“God said to the Woman, ‘What is this that you’ve done?’” Genesis 3:12b (MSG)

When we make choices that are counter to God’s caring instructions, He gives us every opportunity to be forthright about where we are and what we’ve done. The questions asked are not asked to induce shame, but to stir up truth. For what does God do when we repent of our sin?

He saves us from the pit and into His loving arms.

If you find yourself battling guilt and shame for decisions you wish you had made differently, all you need to do is cry out to our Heavenly Father and lift your arms up to him for escape. Surrender the striving to get yourself out of the mud and accept that He is the One who puts you back on solid ground. 

 



Author Bio:

 

Sharon has been writing and teaching biblically based curriculum, Bible studies, and devotionals since 2007.    

 

She has had the unique position of writing curriculum and teaching for two private, Christ-based, residential recovery programs. Both programs primarily served women in the homeless community.

 

Sharon has traveled multiple times to Kenya, serving on medical teams and teaching in the rural Maasai communities. She’s been privileged to speak in Leadership camps intended on encouraging and empowering the impoverished, underprivileged, and often abused young women.

 

Within these ministries, Sharon has witnessed the transformative power of loving words spoken to the broken-hearted. Sharing God’s love and witnessing its transformative power has become her passion.

 

Sharon and her husband, divide their time between Oregon and Hawaii. They have two grown children. 

 

Currently, Sharon is encouraging others via her inspirational blog, but prefers sharing face to face. Additionally, she is working towards a degree in Ministry. 

 

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Connect with Sharon:

Website: Sharonmusgrove.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Sharon-Musgrove-Untethered-102208978041060

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharonmusgrove_untethered/


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