The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. – Psalm 37:31 NKJV. 

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. – Proverbs 24:16 NKJV. 

Ropoto is a Greek town that has slid and sank out of existence. The town was located on a hilltop and everything seemed fine until 2012. On April 12, 2012, there was a landslide which made homes and buildings slide down the hillside. The town is also sinking a foot or so every year. There are still buildings there, but they are uninhabitable leaning this way and that. The town’s infrastructure was destroyed ruining the water system and electrical. About 300 families were forced out of their homes, some living in very difficult situations at first in barns. No one in the town wanted to leave their homes, but they were forced out by the disaster along with the threat of additional landslides. Yorgos Roubies narrates the tragic story in a documentary which GreekReporter dot com has produced.Roubies says, “The churches, everything was gone, there’s not even a cafe here. If someone gets sick, they won’t even be able to find a glass of water. We had never seen such a disaster.” 

It is hard to imagine seeing your home slide down a hill and suddenly having no place to live. Of course, the town of Ropoto is not the only town or city to experience disaster. Disasters are a constant upon Planet Earth with mudslides, landslides, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, sinkholes, floods and I am sure there are also other disastrous situations. Besides natural causes of disasters there are manmade causes of disasters including war, environmental, and other things. 

In our lives we may at times feel as though we are in the midst of a landslide sliding and sinking deeper and deeper. We are not alone in experiencing this kind of thing as the Psalmist cries out, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God (Psalm 69:1-3).” The Psalmists situation was one that he had no control of, it was not the result of sin. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm and Jesus who was tempted at all points without sin applied verse 4 to Himself (In John 15:25): “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it (Psalm 69:4).” 

In other times this falling, sliding, and sinking in our lives comes about as a result of sin. In Proverbs 24:16 we see the possibilities for those who know God are different from those who do not know God. The righteous, the believers, even though they sin can repent of their sin and rise again to walk with their God. Once you have repented, storing up God’s Word in your heart will stop the slide, and will become steps for you to climb out of the pit (Psalm 37:31; Psalm 119:9,11). The wicked, the unbelievers, when they fall into sin have no desire to turn to God, they have no desire to repent and do not rise again. 

Whatever the cause of your falling, sliding, or sinking the way out is to cry out to your God as did the Psalmist: “Save me, O God!”