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Friday... How to survive in a swamp.


Friday... How to survive in a swamp.

I found two words that caught my attention as I was reading in Proverbs 12. The first one was in verse 3. It is the word swamp.  I don't like swamps. And that is a good thing. There are a lot of things that can hurt you in a swamp. Verse 3 (MSG) says, "You can't find firm footing in a swamp, but life rooted in God stands firm." Such a simple truth.

The NLT says it this way, "Wickedness never brings stability, but the goodly have deep roots."

There is a swamp down in Louisiana that we have gone through many times. At some point there were some workers who built a long bridge through that swamp. I'm sure that they had to go deep to find something solid to build that bridge on and they did and we flew through that swamp with no trouble. And we can go through life if we have a firm foundation built on God and His Word. 

There's another word that I found in verse 26, it is the word survives. The verse (MSG) says, "A good person survives misfortune, but a wicked life invites disaster." Are you a survivor? How are your making it through this swamp of a pandemic, this misfortune that we have been going through? Are you sliding all around or are you on a bridge that is built on a deep foundation? 

Paul over in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (MSG) writes, "I was given the gift of an handicap to keep me in touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he did in fact was push me to my knees." Now that is the way to handle misfortune, isn't it? 

He goes on, "At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me. My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into it own in weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size - abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become." Now that is the way to survive the swamps of our life, isn't it? Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning


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