Redeemed and Rising 2

There are seasons in life that feel exactly like a pit—dark, suffocating, and impossible to climb out of alone. The mud and mire aren’t just poetic imagery; they’re the perfect description of circumstances that pull you down, that make every effort to rise feel futile, that drain your energy and your hope simultaneously. And yet this verse doesn’t begin with the pit—it begins with “He lifted me.” The rescue comes first. The solid ground is the destination. And between the two is a God who reaches down into the worst of your circumstances and pulls you out.

There’s a young food delivery business owner named Zoe who by twenty-four had made enough bad decisions to have dismantled what had begun as a genuinely promising operation — poor financial controls, the wrong partner, and the overconfidence of early success that convinced her she could skip the basics. The business failed publicly. She felt trapped in the consequences. A small business development director named Coach Ray noticed her at a local entrepreneur meet-up — not as a success story to invest in, but as someone who needed a hand. He invited her into a peer group she almost declined because she was too ashamed to sit with people who hadn’t yet failed. That one yes cracked something open. Surrounded by business owners who saw her failure as evidence of appetite rather than incompetence, Zoe rebuilt. Her second delivery business launched with the disciplines her first had skipped. Profitable in year two. She now mentors first-time operators through the same community that had reached down and pulled her up. She says, “Someone reached down into the failure and helped me up. That’s when everything changed.”

That’s the heart of Psalm 40:2. The pit doesn’t care how strong you are—some circumstances are specifically designed to make self-rescue impossible. The mud and mire of addiction, depression, broken relationships, financial ruin, or lost identity can pull at you faster than you can climb. The good news isn’t that you need to try harder. The good news is that God lifts. He reaches into the worst of where you are, pulls you out, and doesn’t just set you on better ground—He sets you on a rock. Something immovable. Something that won’t shift beneath you when life gets hard again.

Being set on a rock means you have a firm place to stand—not just emotionally or spiritually, but practically. It means you have a foundation from which to rebuild, to speak, to move forward without the constant fear of sinking again. That kind of stability changes everything about how you live.

Acknowledge the pit honestly. Stop minimizing or pretending you’re fine. Name where you’re stuck. Admitting you’re in the mud is the first step toward being lifted out of it.

Ask for help without shame. Whether it’s God, a counselor, a mentor, a trusted friend, or a community—reach up. The lifting requires a hand extended in both directions. Don’t let pride keep you sinking.

Build your life on the rock, not the mud. Once lifted, be intentional about what your foundation is made of. Decisions, relationships, habits, and values built on solid ground will hold when pressure comes. Those built on shifting circumstances won’t.

Be someone else’s lifter. Like Coach Ray, look around for someone stuck in a pit. You don’t need a program or a platform—just consistent, caring presence. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply reach down for someone who can’t climb out alone.

Remember: the pit is not your permanent address. It’s a season, not a sentence. God is in the business of lifting people out of their lowest places and setting them on ground so solid that even their storms can’t shake them. Reach up. Let Him lift you.