DIG THREE FEET DEEPER

DON'T GIVE UP

Jerry Depew

There is a true story about a man who went West to seek his fortune in gold. This man was one of the lucky ones. He found gold and quite a bit of it.

He began to mine his gold using only a few tools. But, finding this to be too slow and difficult, he traveled back East to interest his friends and relatives in his venture. While there, he raised enough money to buy the necessary mining equipment.

Now, with enough financial support, the man went back to his gold mine. After a period of time, his debtors were all being paid off, and he was about to become a very wealthy man. Suddenly, however, his dream collapsed. The gold mine went dry!

Disgusted, the man sold his mining equipment to a junk dealer. And, thinking the mine to be worthless, he gave the deed to the junk dealer.

The junk dealer called in a mining engineer to study the mine. The engineer finished his study and reported that only "three feet deeper" was another vein of gold. And so, the junk dealer became rich while the other man learned a costly lesson.

What a tragedy it was for this man to remain a pauper who had been just "three feet" from riches. Yet, how often do you and I find ourselves just "three feet" from reaching our goal?

Many times, at an altar of prayer, we will come just "three feet" from receiving victory in our souls. Sinners will often come just "three feet" from receiving a portion of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." Because of the crowd, because of distractions, or because of unbelief, we fail to touch Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark tells us of a woman who went the extra "three feet" in order to touch Him.

"A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, 'If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.'" NIV (Mark 5:25-27)

And immediately, this woman was made whole. We need to be like this woman and persevere until we touch Jesus. Let us dig all sin, doubts, fears, and distractions out of our hearts. Let us keep digging until we touch Him. He may be just "three feet" away!