Ditches
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin … rather offer yourselves to God.
Romans 6:13
The water poured into the ditch as fast as Darnell dug. He was trying to excavate around a broken water main so his crew could fix it, but it wasn’t going very well. He ordered one of his men to dig a diversion ditch to reroute the water away from the broken pipe. He advised the man to begin the ditch at least fifty feet away and work his way back to the break. “It needs to be below the level of the main pipeline or it won’t do us any good,” Darnell added.
The man chose a low-lying area in an abandoned lot. It would hold a large volume of water if it was routed in that direction. Starting at the abandoned lot, he began the ditch. Twenty minutes later, the water broke through into the diversion ditch as the final bit of ground gave way. The water level around the broken pipe receded, and Darnell was able to excavate the area so his men could complete repairs.
Finished, they filled in the ditches using power tampers to pack the dirt and then laid new asphalt. Within hours, water was restored to residents’ homes and traffic flowed normally through the neighborhood.
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Undeterred sin becomes like a broken water main in our lives. And many times, in true remorse, we attempt to dig ourselves out, yet fail, only to sink deeper into the sin-laden soil. We get so bogged down that we believe there’s no way out. And for good reason: self-extrication never works. Eventually, sin floods our soul and drowns our spirit.
Fact: the more we dig, the deeper the ditch.
Truth: the only way out of our sin is to stop digging in the wrong ditch!
Answer: we must begin to dig a deeper ditch in God’s direction. He can and wants to cover the sin in our lives, filling in the old ditch if we allow Him.
Only by constantly offering ourselves to God—digging toward Him instead of our sinful desires—can we rise from our ditches.
Prayer
“Lord, fill in the sinful areas of my heart. Cover them with Your forgiveness and keep me from trying to dig them up again. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
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