No Pit So Deep

 "No pit is so deep that His love is not deeper still"

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Pits, literal and figurative, are not pleasant places to find ourselves in. Whether we dig our own or someone throws us in to one; they are dark, dreary, scary, uncomfortable, hurtful, harmful, cold, lonely.  

They are referenced in scripture literally; as in the pit that Joseph's brothers threw him in.

📖  And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father. Genesis 37:22

Or pits dug for battle (used to kill or capture the enemy)

📖 They spread a net for my feet—

    I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path—
    but they have fallen into it themselves. Psalm 57:6

Or figuratively as places that separate us from the Lord and swallow us up, 

📖 You have put me in the lowest pit,

    in the darkest depths. Psalm 88:6

Or to represent Hell.

📖 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
    you spared me from going down to the pit. Psalm 30:3

📖 But you will be brought down to Sheol

into the deepest regions of the Pit. Isaiah 14:15

 

In some Scripture, the term pit is also used when showing there is hope in the Lord.

📖 God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’ Job 33:28

📖 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:1-2

📖 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God. Jonah 2:6 (NKJV)

📖 Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like  psalm 103:2-5

I am not sure how, other than God's amazing grace and mercy, did Corrie, Betsy and others retain a thread of hope while enduring the work camps and concentration camps of WWII. There are many other stories of hope in the darkest of pits.

I have written of Joseph of Gensis (Can We See Beyond the Pit message April 2020) and how he kept his faith and served in every pit, literal and figurative he was thrown into.

The answer... GOD! Maintaining a relationship with God. Reading or quoting Scripture, talking to God even if only silently, finding a way to live and serve others in His name. 

And knowing that no matter how your time in the Pit ends....God has got it. Corrie Ten Boom received freedom from the Ravensbruck "pit" and continued to be a witness of God's love and forgiveness....but Besty also became free...when she died in that camp, free from the "pit" and the pain and is sitting with Christ Jesus. 

📖 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.  For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Philippians 1:20-21

I couldn't pray words any better than those found in Lamentations!

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📖 Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird. They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me; the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish. I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.  You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”  You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life. Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!

 Lamentations 3:52-59

♥️AMEN!