{"id":2668,"date":"2020-11-02T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=2668"},"modified":"2020-10-21T08:57:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:57:29","slug":"what-happens-when-you-dig-a-pit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2020\/11\/02\/what-happens-when-you-dig-a-pit\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIG A PIT?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>4 minute read<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cWhoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.\u201d (Proverbs 26:27 NIV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you dig a pit, you fall into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credit card debt is a pit, I know because I fell into it.&nbsp; Like many others, my first credit card came when I was a freshman in college with no job.&nbsp; Today, using plastic to pay for things is a way of life.&nbsp; When I was in college, people used cash more than credit cards for purchases. Not having any money because I was a broke college student, I used credit to buy groceries.&nbsp; I will never forget one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.&nbsp; In line at the store, I handed the cashier my credit card.&nbsp; The lady behind me was astonished.&nbsp; She says, \u201cDon\u2019t you feel guilty eating food you haven\u2019t paid for yet?\u201d&nbsp; She humiliated me.&nbsp; I have never forgotten the moment.&nbsp; Those were the first few shovels of the debt pit I dug for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Pits take time to develop.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pits don\u2019t happen overnight.&nbsp; Digging holes happen one shovel at a time.&nbsp; My credit card debt accumulated over several years.&nbsp; I didn\u2019t max out the limit the first month; it took me time to get that to that point.&nbsp; Maxed out credit was my rock bottom; I couldn\u2019t get anymore.&nbsp; None of that happened quickly, which is why you don\u2019t know you\u2019re digging a pit.&nbsp; The slow pace doesn\u2019t allow us to see the depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I dug that pit on my own, without Jesus.&nbsp; During the time I was shoveling up loans, I wasn\u2019t following Jesus.&nbsp; My life centered on me, no one else, certainly not God.&nbsp; To say I\u2019m still recovering from the things I did to myself then is an understatement.&nbsp; My most immense heartache is the people I hurt during that time, no one more than myself.&nbsp; But thank God I hit rock bottom because the only place I had to look was up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We may fall into the pits we dig for ourselves, but God pulls us out.&nbsp; The moment we focus our eyes on Him, He starts lifting.&nbsp; In my situation, He used my little brother.&nbsp; Single at the time; I needed accountability.&nbsp; Asking my brother for help was humbling for me, very hard to do. &nbsp; He went through my finances, set up automatic payments, and devised a plan to get me out of debt.&nbsp; His plan worked, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daveramsey.com\/\">Dave Ramsey\u2019s<\/a> financial course, I learned how to manage money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humility is the first step out of the pit.&nbsp; Humbling ourselves before God, admitting our failures, is the first rung of the ladder.&nbsp; With daily submission to God, He\u2019ll lift us out of our pits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Question of the Day:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">What pit have you dug for yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Ezekiel%203%3A16-6%3A14&amp;version=NIV\">Ezekiel 3:16-6:14 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Hebrews%204&amp;version=NIV\">Hebrews 4:1-16 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Psalm%20104%3A24-35&amp;version=NIV\">Psalm 104:24-35 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Proverbs+26%3A27&amp;version=NIV\">Proverbs 26:27 NIV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 minute read \u201cWhoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.\u201d (Proverbs 26:27 NIV) When you dig a pit, you fall into it. Credit card debt is a pit, I know because I fell into it.&nbsp; Like many others, my first credit card came&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2020\/11\/02\/what-happens-when-you-dig-a-pit\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIG A PIT?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions\/2669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}