Just Because We Ask

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble…
Psalm 107

The term “foxhole faith” refers to someone whose life is falling apart around them and in desperation, they cry out to God to save them. The term actually comes from the wartime, when men who have had nothing to do with God or religion suddenly find themselves in a foxhole with the bullets flying past their head and they cry out to God to save them. “If you get me out of here alive, I’ll serve you, God,” might be something they’d pray in the face of death.  This kind of foxhole commitment rarely ever lasts beyond the rescue. Once the person has returned to safety, the promises fade and life without God eventually returns until the next time they face danger.

In Psalm 107, we have four examples of foxhole faith but the issue isn’t circumstances, but it is depravity.  It is clear from Psalm 107 that the individual is crying out because they are at the end of the rope and the circumstances develop in their lives over a period of time.  The reaction is one of the realization of sinfulness caught up in the circumstances of life.  Remember Peter’s reaction to Jesus in walking on the water or in trying to bring in full of the miraculous fish catch.  It is the realization of depravity and of sin.

Psalm 107:5 – Their soul fainted within them.
Psalm 107:11 – Because they had rebelled.
Psalm 107:18 – They drew near to the gates of death.
Psalm 107:26 – Their soul melted away in their misery.

In each case, God did not ask them to clean up their act.  The solution was to ask.  Nothing more.  God does not ask us to ever clean up before approaching him.  Four times it says that God “brought them out of their distresses”.  He “brought them out of darkness”.  We have a delivering God.  There are no strings attached.  We only need to approach the throne for forgiveness.  Have you asked forgiveness today?