I felt like I was thrown into a pit 5 years ago when my husband, after years of ministry and 22 years of marriage, left me and our kids.
The air in that pit felt so thick and so black. There was no way of escape. I felt emotionally and spiritually like the only thing I could do was just cling for my life to Jesus…I hid behind Him, my arms wrapped tightly around His waist, my head pressed up against His back and my eyes squeezed shut. So afraid to take a step, feeling like I would plummet even deeper to my death in that horrible pit.
Almost a year later, I felt the Lord take my hand and lead me out of the pit where I could breathe once again. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delights in me. 2 Sam 22:20
Right before Joseph’s brothers hurled him into the pit, they tore off his beautiful robe. Again, he got his cloak ripped right off him by Potiphar’s wife before he got thrown into prison (which was also an underground pit)!
When we are hurt and betrayed by people we love or thrown into a pit by uncontrollable circumstances, it can feel like we’ve been stripped of our “beautiful robe”…robbed of our innocence, our dreams, our dignity. It feels as though we have been left exposed and naked in a dark, cruel world, vulnerable for attack.
Jesus was also stripped of His clothing and His dignity as He hung naked on the cross and died for us. He knows exactly how we feel!
A few years ago while touring Israel, we went down into the pit where they threw Jesus the night before they murdered Him and we sang, “Amazing Love.” I began weeping uncontrollably! Jesus had been literally thrown into the same pit I had been emotionally thrown into. Jesus was with me in my pit, but He was all alone, chained, beaten and bloody in His. My heart broke for my sweet Jesus to pay such a painful price for me…I didn’t deserve such sacrifice.
The next day we had another worship service at the Garden Tomb and the Lord gave me a new picture of Him and me in the pit. This time it wasn’t so dark and smothering and I wasn’t clinging to His back. I was comforting Jesus and saw myself giving Him a drink of water. I was ministering to Him. My first thought was, “This is NOT right!! Jesus ministers to me!” But then He said, “When you do it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Me.”
We can and we must look beyond ourselves in our dark times!
God’s desire is to give us a new robe! One that can never be stolen!!
I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!
He has clothed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.
Is. 61:10
My son put this great video together for me! "Amazing Love"
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