Jump Starting My Faith

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong.”  Mandy Hale

There’s just something demoralizing about being stuck. Did you happen to get stuck during the recent snow storm? We did. Fortunately, we were finally able to dig out all but one car. Thanks goodness for AAA! 

  When I have to drive through Chicago, if I can possibly time it correctly, I’ll either leave very early or very late but I do everything I can to avoid being stuck in traffic. It’s estimated the average American commuter spends 38 hours a year stuck in traffic. That’s the equivalent of a week at work when you’re stuck in traffic every year. It’s even worse in big cities. For urban residents in areas like D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco, the typical car commuter spends more than 60 hours – sitting in his car, stuck.

  Being stuck is a part of life, whether it’s stuck in a boring lecture, a monotonous day at work, or a prolonged wait at the dentist’s office. We hate feeling stuck! Yet, there’s something far more serious. It’s being stuck spiritually.

  The Christian life is to be fulfilling, purposeful and meaningful. Yet, many believers are just stuck. They’re in a spiritual rut. The worst part is that they believe that the “rut” is normal. It’s not!

  God doesn’t want us to be stuck. Even though the Apostle Paul was “stuck” in a Roman prison (think dungeon), though he was continuously persecuted, tortured, hated and mistreated, he still said, “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). From a human perspective, Paul was the poster child for what it meant to be “stuck,” but he wasn’t. He was free! His life had fulfillment, purpose and meaning. How about you? Does yours? Or, are you just stuck? Here are some symptoms of being stuck. Do a self-test and evaluate if maybe you’re stuck.

  Life feels like it’s déjà vu. You feel you’re constantly ending up in the same situation. Maybe you work hard to change things, yet the more you try, the more things stay the same. People in the workplace do this all the time. They hate their job. They moan, groan and bellyache ad nauseam. Finally, they’re so fed up, they jump ship. They find a similar job with similar pay but with a different employer. Many just move to a different or department within the same company but have a different group they work with and a different supervisor. But in a few months, they feel like all they’ve done is go around in a huge circle. They’re as upset and as unhappy as they were before. The only thing that changed was their location. When our spiritual life becomes like that, we’re in trouble.

  Everything is seemingly harder than it should be. Nothing is easy. There are constant delays, unexpected problems, unforeseen complications, etc. Everything you attempt to do seems to demand monumental effort. Things that should be straightforward to accomplish, aren’t. You seem to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing you do seems to move you forward no matter how hard you try. You’re out of sync with everyone and everything.

  You have a perpetual case of the blahs. You’re bored. Life lacks joy. You’re tired and listless. Deep down you know something isn’t right. Your heart tells you you’re not in the right place and aren’t going in the right direction. You feel trapped, even hopeless. You begin to feel anxious and yet you don’t really understand why you’re feeling the way you do.

  You worry about nearly everything. You expect the worst and it’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy. You find yourself continually bemoaning, “Why me?” You don’t have confidence in your decisions and fear the future.

  Life is a constant struggle. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, you’re drained. You’re going through the motions. You just don’t know what to do anymore.

  If this describes you, you’re stuck. But our Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to be stuck, so it’s time for a spiritual jump start.

  The Gospel insists that forward movement and transformation is possible. Not easy and rarely quick. But possible by God’s grace. We were not designed to be stuck. God doesn’t want us in spiritual gridlock, just treading water. He has so much more for us.

  A restart begins to take place as we become intensely serious about learning from God’s Word and letting Jesus rearrange our lives. Wise, fulfilled individuals across the millennia have trusted the Lord Jesus and devoted themselves to do this. Yet, Jesus’ way needs to be reexamined and reapplied to every age and social setting. It needs to be reapplied as we go through different passages of life from singleness to senior citizens, and everything in between.

  Over the next five Sundays we’re going to plug into the wisdom of God’s Word and investigate how to jump start our spiritual lives. The reality is that we’re more comfortable with Interstates, I-phones and Isis than we are with the reflection, quiet and solitude that studying God’s Word and His solution require. Wonderfully, to have the fulfilled life God designed for us to have doesn’t mean we have to leave our life to join a monastery. A spiritual restart with true change begins internally. It’s not dependent on our life’s circumstances or environment. Too often Satan deceives us into thinking that we need a change in our situation or location. Our omnipresent Heavenly Father knows that the medicine we need is for our souls and it applies in every situation. Rarely, do we need an external change…though most of us think that. Our solution is a heart change.

  Our issue isn’t even poor self-esteem or some failure to accept ourselves. While it may be part of the problem, the solution begins as we realize that we are, as the King James words it, “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) and that our Heavenly Father has the cure, with a purpose and plan for our lives.

  Please don’t stay stuck. Instead, will you plug you in? Determine to join us next Sunday and for the following four weeks. Allow the Spirit to attach the jumper cables of God’s Word and His power on your soul and jump start your heart and life. It’s time to Jumpstart your faith! 

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