As a girl growing up in Northern Virginia, we took family vacations all up and down the East coast. Every once in a while we would struggle to get from point A to point B, and my Dad would exclaim, “We can’t get there from here!” This was back in the days before GPS and in-dash navigation systems and well, if I have to admit it, before cell phones and mapquest, too.

I got to pass this family tradition on to my husband many years ago on a camping trip to the Outer Banks when the road literally ran into the ocean. There *may* have been signs warning us of this hazard, but we must not have believed it at the time. Standing on the beach, we could see where we needed to go, but without a ferry or a bridge we were stuck.

Now, my children even joke about similar situations. We live less than a mile from the boys’ elementary school, but there is no safe way to walk or bike there. Between our house and the most direct route to the school looms a large overgrown area that occasionally has water, sometimes stagnant and other times flowing. Apparently, one of my son’s friends played in that ditch once and found a very large snake. There is no way I’d cross that ditch alone.

We need a bridge!

Standing between me and heaven is this overgrown, sometimes frightening chasm of my sin that I cannot cross on my own. Sometimes I find myself hip deep wallowing in that mess with the evil serpent that tempts me, drags me in, pulls me back and convinces me I’m never going to make it. Like, when I realize I’ve lost my temper with my kids for the umpteenth time in one day, and then guilt washes over me as I hear his attacks: “You are a terrible mother!” “You claim to be a Christian?” “What if your kids grow up hating you?” or worse yet, “What if your kids grow up just like you?” Like quicksand he drags me down as his lies threaten to convince me that I will never reach righteousness from where I stand.

The truth is we already have the bridge.

God spanned the distance with His very own Son’s sacrifice. We did not build it ourselves, but we must, with the help of the Holy Spirit, choose to cross it by our faith in Jesus. His blood alone brings us near to God. (Ephesians 2:13). He bridges the gap between us and our eternity.

The words of the bible are the most powerful road sign we could ever hope to have guiding us on this journey. We CAN get there from here if we simply believe in Him and the power of His sacrifice to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Not only is Jesus the bridge, but through the work of the one He calls the Helper (John 14:26), the Holy Spirit, He will pluck us out of the miry clay, place our feet on solid ground, wash us off and point us in the right direction. (Psalm 40:2)

Whatever the enemy seeks to drown you in today, whether it be guilt, shame, comparison, unworthiness, jealousy, doubt, pain, lust, anger or any other lie, I urge you to remember to reach up and grab hold of the truth that has the power to see you safely to the other side.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things the I said to you. John 14:26

“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and grave me a firm place to stand.” Psalm 40:2