Trials

UnStuck?

Yesterday I wrote about the reasons we might become stuck in our spiritual walk or our relationship with God; We don't trust God, Our Past, Our Feelings, and/or Our Sin can all keep us from moving forward.

So the next question is, "How do we unstick?"

1. Get to know God and trust him more.

You have to know who God is, what is the truth, and his character. The enemy is the master deceiver and he wants to get you all messed up and confused about your relationship with God. He constantly mocks you and tries to get you to believe lies. The enemy loves to stir the pot and convince you that God is a killjoy or worse not to be counted on. You have to ground yourself in God’s promises and trust him to be who he says he is.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; he is the King of Kings, who created the heavens and the earth. His love is so complete and powerful he put his son on the cross to die for our sins. He promises to never leave or forsake us and that he knows our name! Our faith, our steadfastness, and our trust in Him help us not be so easily swayed or deceived.

Then you have to really, not kind-of-sort-of, trust him!

• trust him to show up
• to keep his promises
• give you the strength when you feel like you can’t go on
• trust in his grace and mercy
• trust he has a plan for your life
• trust that you will have consequences if you go against him

You have to trust him and his word to become unstuck, to move closer to him. If you put your trust in anything else it will always return void.

2. Choose to take the next steps. “Knowing God’s word doesn't cause me to grow. But doing it does.” (Donna Jones)

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9

PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. DO IT. APPLY IT. THINK about things that are pure, lovely, admirable, praiseworthy, and true.  Get your mind on those things in the world not all the other garbage we fill our heads with. You can know God’s word inside and out, be a theologian that can argue with the best of them, but if you don't apply anything you know, hear, or learn you will remain stuck!

I can get a master's degree in exercise and nutrition and have my shelves lined with how to get healthy books. But if I never go to the gym or stop eating cookies all the knowledge in the world is not going to help me get healthy. It’s the same with God’s word. You can know it and stay the same, but you have to do it and apply it to change.

But the other part is progress. Progress means movement towards something. You have to take the next step. Might be a baby step, it might only be a shuffle but the cross, the sacrifice of the cross, DEMANDS a response!!! Maybe it is time to do more than just show up for church, sing a few songs, nod your head at a few things said from the stage and walk out of church really NO different. Maybe it’s time to stop making excuses. God doesn't want our excuses he wants our heart!

Maybe it’s time to take your foot off the brakes, and say, “I am ready to move forward. Take the next step!”

What is the Next Step?

• Maybe find one verse in the Bible you claim as yours and memorize it. One of mine is Ephesians 1:7-8 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”

When I first became a Christian and my past kept trying to keep me chained this verse got me through. It told me God bought me with the blood of his son, forgave me of my sins because he is full of grace and mercy which he poured out onto me!

• Have a tough conversation with someone you have been putting off
• Get the courage to share Jesus with that person he has put in your life no matter how awkward or uncomfortable.
• Stop isolating. Get connected to a community. Join a small group. Go on a mission trip. Join a team and volunteer. You can’t unstick yourself.  You need help, people alongside you on this journey.
• Maybe God wants you to confess a sin and get help to stop it. Stop sleeping with the person you are not married to, stop gossiping behind other people’s backs, stop bad mouthing the church when things don't go your way, control your temper, stop pursuing the love of money or material things.
• Maybe he wants you to break you free from an addiction of porn, drugs, alcohol, buying…. whatever it is SIN WILL KEEP YOU STUCK!
• Maybe it is surrendering your finances and being more generous.
• Look at how you are spending your time, what are you thinking about and focusing on most of the time? Is it stuff that has no eternal value?
• Go to counseling and really deal with some of that baggage you have been carrying around that it just too heavy.
• It could be as simple as a prayer or a conversation that you need to begin with God.

Ask yourself: Am I willing to do what is necessary to become unstuck? Will I get to the end of my life and be okay with where I am at right now?

Let me tell you about some people here at Elements City Church that are choosing to take the next steps to move closer to God. I want to share these stories because they are some of my heroes. They are choosing that no matter how crappy their past was, how awful they have acted, how unfair life has been to them, they are choosing to take the next steps, some of them drastic steps toward Jesus.

There is a guy that grew up on the streets of Philadelphia to teenage parents who couldn't overcome their drug addictions and never really parented him. He saw a verse on our whiteboard at home and asked a few questions. His next steps: he went to church the next day, got baptized, starting going to counseling, and comes every Sunday night without really knowing anybody but us.

A young female who sat across the table from me at coffee and said, “Kimberley, I am not a good person. I don't like who I am and if you look at my past it is awful and I am so ashamed. But I want to change!”  This girl is beautiful, smart, and successful and could get by on life just because of this. But she made the step to talk to someone. She is being open and honest about the sin in her life, she is trusting wise counsel on how to deal with it, and she joined a bible study. She also chose to stop drinking not because she thinks it’s wrong but because she looked at her past and figured out that most of her bad decisions came when she was drinking so it wasn't worth it.

A single mom with 5 kids who took the steps to protect her kids by having the courage to get them all out of an unsafe situation. She is scared and fearful about going at it alone, with very little resources, but taking the next steps to give her children a different life!

Or the mom who had a baby as a teenager and just got baptized 15 years later because she has recommitted her life to Jesus and wants something different for her family. She is not letting her past stop her from becoming part of leadership here at Elements. She knows she has been redeemed. Her next step was saying yes to be a team leader. Her past will not keep her chained.

Another young man who left a very strict religious home to find the Jesus of the bible not the Jesus used for control. His step out was filled with fear and anxiety but he knew he had to move. He found a church and community who could show him the love and compassion of Jesus.

One 20 year old female took a next step when she decided that Facebook was causing her too much of a distraction so she disabled her account, so she can spend more time listening to podcasts and worship music.

What is so different about these people? They are moving towards Jesus no matter what they have been through. They are ordinary people showing up and taking the next step.

Now I can almost hear some of your thoughts from here, “I can’t do this! It’s too hard. I am not disciplined enough. I am too young, too old. I am scared. I’m too hurt. You don't know what I have done. I am not ready. I will wait until I am older or get myself together more…..

And I say to you, The resurrected son of God lives inside us. The cross is ENOUGH! You can't stay the same and follow Jesus.  He said come follow me. He is going somewhere. Jesus never meant for us stand still and be stagnant.

“Being a Christian is about surrendering to Jesus and then submitting to him on a daily basis one step at a time and KNOWING that he is going to make us into who we need to be.” Perry Noble 

Stuck!

When I was eight years old my parents took me on a scary carnival ride. It had one long steel pole with cages at each end that rotated around and around as the pole swung us through the air. All of a sudden, as we were at the highest rotation point, the ride lurched to a halt and we stopped. Hanging upside down, squished between my parents, I thought I was going to die. We were stuck!

Have you ever been stuck? Stuck in traffic? Stuck in a line? In an elevator? At a family or work event? Have you ever had gum stuck on your shoe or in your hair? What feelings come with being stuck? Anger, frustration, exhaustion, fear, bitterness towards others, maybe even loss of hope, or wanting to just give up?

The definition of stuck: unable to move forward, trapped, unable to set oneself free.

It happens to us in our spiritual walk too. It doesn’t matter where you are with your relationship with God, whether you are a brand new Christian, not a Christian at all, or you have been walking with God for years. We all get stuck!

Why do we get stuck?

1. We Don’t Trust God

• We don’t believe He is who He says He
• that He is going to show up
• that He is listening
• That He will keep his promises or his word. 
• that HE created us for a purpose and has a plan for our lives
• We don't believe He tries to protect us by telling us not to do certain things. 
• how much He loves us
• that we are his precious children who He relentlessly pursues no matter what we have done
• We don't believe God won’t quit on us.

How can we mature in Christ if we don't trust God is who he says He is and will do what He promises? We will remain stuck.

2. Our Past

It’s a powerful thing that can get us trapped, entrenched. The wounds are deep binding us in chains. The hurt, the shame, the bitterness, the anger all goes down to our soul. But you cannot become unstuck if you don't free yourselves from your past.

I know some of you are thinking, “You have no idea what I have been through or what I have done!” You are right I don't. I know that some of you have been abused, misused, violated or you some of you have done those things to others. Many of you have secrets that you think are so ugly that you can never truly get over them.

BUT Your past does not define you. THE CROSS DOES!

Your identity is not found in your past. Satan uses our past to defeat us because we focus so much on his lies that we don't believe we can ever get over our past.

“If you don’t let your past die, then it wont let you live.” Perry Noble

You will always remain trapped. Are you going to live in self-pity or triumph? Are you going to remain a victim or are you going to claim the victory of the cross? 

Don't get stuck in your past so you can’t claim the future God has for you!

3. Our Feelings

Sometimes we are stuck because of our feelings. Anger, bitterness, selfishness, or maybe we are disillusioned. We don't feel close to God, we don't feel joyful, we are angry because someone in the church has disappointed us, so we don’t feel like going to church. We don't feel called to volunteer. We don't feel like forgiving. Our feelings can get in the way of moving forward. We focus so much on how we feel and our emotions. Let's be honest here, feelings can’t always be trusted. They can be all over the place, up and down like a roller coaster. Do you tell your teenagers to trust all their thinking when they are going through those years? No way. Teenage filters can be way off. Think of girls who one minute they are BFFs forever and the next minute they are done. Sometimes we have to look past our feelings, look at the bigger picture. Look at God’s viewpoint rather than through our filters.

As we mature in following Christ we begin to believe what God’s word says over the way we feel.” Perry Noble

God’s word is true and trustworthy. Our feelings and emotions can sometimes be cloudy and confused.

4. Our Sin- Sin is anything that breaks the relationship between you and God.

“It's impossible to experience spiritual maturity while hanging on to an area of sin in our lives. Sometimes when we don’t want to give up our sin so we try to immerse ourselves in some sort of Christian activity believing that maybe we will appease God and he won’t notice this other little sin part over here. Just like if you go to McDonalds and order a big mac, large fries, an apple pie and a diet coke. The diet coke doesn't cancel out all the other garbage you just bought.” (Paraphrased from Perry Noble) The same with sin.

The consequence of sin is separation from God. When you don't deal with the sin in your life it moves you farther and farther away from Him. Often you start becoming pretty comfortable with sin as your sidekick that your life is no different than the worlds. Sin will keep you stuck. It will stop you from moving forward. It will stop you from maturing in your spiritual walk.

If I were to ask many of you where are you right now with your walk with Jesus or this season in your life, many would say, “I’m stuck. I don’t feel like I am making any progress. Or I feel like I am backsliding. I am discouraged because I keep doing the same things over and over again. Or some of you may be near the breaking point, I am quitting this is too hard I don’t see enough change.”

Stop and ask yourself; Am I letting my feelings rule my thoughts? Not trusting the one who created me? Playing the tapes of my past over and over?  Making choices that will keep me in destructive patterns? The One that lives in You is GREATER than all of these things!

"But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." 1 Corinthians 15:57-58

Tomorrow: How to Get Unstuck

Having An Affair?

When I talk about my husband, Bryan I usually gush. My eyes light up, and sometimes even fill with tears. I become very animated and excited to tell others about how awesome he is to me. I really like being introduced as his wife because I am so proud of who he is not because of his job or looks but because of how he treats others. When he walks into a room I still get butterflies in my stomach, take a deep breath and thank God he is mine! I know people get tired of hearing about him but I can't help be passionate about someone I love so much!!! 

I wonder if my relationship with God is like that? Do I gush about God? Do I get excited and enthusiastic to tell everyone about how God picked me up from the depths of despair and gave me a new life? Do I share how His love goes so deep and so wide that he sacrificed his son on the cross? Am I proud to be called the daughter of The King and show him this by how I live my life? Am I as exuberant about my relationship with Jesus as I am about the new shoes or purse I just bought? Or the marathon I am training for? Or the job I do to become more successful? Or the new kitchen that was just installed in my house? Or maybe even my children? I am by no means saying any of these things are bad but are they taking the place in my heart where Jesus should be? 

One pastor put it this way, "If you were cheating on your spouse, having an affair, you probably are not very passionate when describing them. Obviously something is wrong in the marriage relationship. So look at your relationship with Jesus. If you are not passionate and excited about Him what are you having an affair with that is keeping you from this?" WHOA!

"God, I don't want to be having an "affair" with anything that stands in the way of my relationship with you. Forgive me for filling up my heart with other things or people before you. I want my passion for you to shine through my actions and words. Give me a consuming fire to share who you are and what you have done for me with everyone you put in my path." 

Bryan loves me well but God loves me perfectly!

"My tongue will proclaim your righteousness, your praises all day long." Psalm 35:28