In his fallen state, mankind is lost and degenerate, wicked to the core, and hopelessly headed to an eternity in hell. The Bible has nothing good to say about our unregenerate hearts. Jeremiah says that our hearts are ‘deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’ Though man began perfectly, and beautifully reflected the image of his Creator, sin permanently marred him, and left man spiritually dead.

In His infinite mercy, God, out of His love for man, provided a plan of redemption to pay for man’s awful transgression. That plan would be hideous, and unthinkable, for no other design could rectify the death caused by man’s sin. God’s only Son, the second Member of the Godhead, Jesus, would come to earth, be born of a virgin, live a spotless life, and be cruelly tortured, shamed, and crucified as payment for man’s sin.

Then, to break the power of death over man, Jesus would rise from the dead, ever living as the Savior of the world. No price has ever been greater, and no payment has ever been more complete. Jesus fulfilled every requirement of our sin debt that we might be free.

Jesus’ payment for man’s sins had but one requirement, man must believe. There was nothing man could do to ever earn his redemption, all he could do was put his hope in Jesus, and in so doing, his sins would be washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God.

The book of Romans opens by describing man’s fallen nature, and it is not a pretty sight. The chapter attributes nothing of any value to man, as his heart has become a reflection of his master, the devil. That description includes the following in…

Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Interestingly, that chapter teaches us that God placed the knowledge of Himself in every man, thus, ‘when they knew God.’ Though man somehow has that knowledge in his mind, he typically does everything possible to ignore it, and act like it does not really exist. Or, worse, knowing that there is a God, man willfully chooses to mock Him and become His enemy.

What is tragic and sad is when those who have trusted Christ for their salvation, and have enjoyed His forgiveness of sins, begin to behave like the lost. We who know Christ are to live our lives empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit, bringing glory to our Savior.

However, when we begin living to please ourselves, and follow after our fleshly desires, we lose the pure reflection of Christ in our lives, and take on the hideous image of Satan instead. Notice, by not bringing glory to Christ as God, and by not being thankful, our testimony is lost, and instead of pointing people to Christ, we begin fitting in with the world around us.

I think we need to go back to simply living our lives to purposely glorifying the Lord in everything we do. Perhaps then we will begin making inroads in seeing the lost come to Christ.

Why is it that we so often wait until we find ourselves in dire straits before crying out to God?
It really makes no sense. We know, both by the Scriptures, and by our own experience, that God is always there when we call. In Christ we have a High Priest who is personally touched by our feelings. When we hurt, He is affected. Our prayers are heard by a loving and merciful Lord.

In spite of that which we know to be true, we still typically procrastinate actually calling upon the Lord for help until the last minute. It’s not that we didn’t see our predicament coming, and progressively getting worse. We had been living under an ominous cloud for some time, but instead of making it an urgent matter of prayer, we kept waiting, and coming up with one unsuccessful solution after another.

There is an encouraging verse in the Psalms that speaks to this.

Psalms 118:5 I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Again, the specific events are left out, but we are told that it was written during a time of ‘distress.’ The word literally means, ‘pain or strait.’ There were trials making life pretty miserable. Being in ‘straits’ means to be pressed, or squeezed. I get the sense of going down into a deep, dark cave. In order to proceed, you must go through an opening that is barely large enough to pass. Once you have committed yourself, you get so wedged in, you suddenly wonder if you can move. Your chest is squeezed between the rock on either side making it harder and harder to breathe. There is no light, increasing your panic level. The thought that you may not be able to free yourself begins to make your blood pressure sky rocket. Within only a few seconds you find yourself pressed into a full-blown panic.

It is this mental state into which the author is racing. His world is caving in around him, making him wonder if he can go on. If he fails to proceed, the life as he knows it may come to an end. He was definitely in ‘distress.’

In that fearsome, panic-stricken condition, he cried out to the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord heard him, and answered him. His answer came by being placed in a ‘large place.’ That’s an odd way of describing his answer. The wording actually means an open space or enlarged area. In contrast to the pressed position he had been in, what could be better than being freed into a large space?

The actual answer is once again not mentioned; simply that God released him from his pressure and gave him room to breathe. To the one stuck in the cave, being able to be freed into a large, air-filled room would be the best present he could receive.

Instead of waiting until the last moment, how about we keep the communication continually open with the Lord. Maybe by doing so, we won’t find ourselves stuck in a rock, unable to breathe.