Feeling Stuck? You can Start Again and Move Past your Past

Are there hopes and desires that you once had, and now there somewhere in the distance? Maybe you have tried to step out many different times, only to see things crumble and lay by the waste side. Perhaps, you’re tired of trying to get back up again, and you feel you’re your hope has been deferred one too many times. So, now you feel stuck, stuck to go forward and try again. You may feel what the point in trying again is.

You may be in a season in your life where you feel stuck; you can’t go back but you’re not moving forward either. Let’s explore some reasons why you may feel stuck.

               

You may feel stuck but in fact you are not, God has you in the transition of waiting until the next season opens up. It could be that it is not time to move forward, yet you feel antsy in your flesh to move ahead. There is a grace and a flow when it is time to move ahead with the things of God, and when it’s not it feels like you are in quicksand and cannot move no matter how much you want to.

You might feel like you have tried many times before to mend a relationship, start a ministry or business, heal an old wound, break free from addiction and sin, get out of debt, or just enjoy your life, but each time you try it seems to fail. This has caused you to feel hopeless and like a failure. You have become tired and weary in the trying, and now it is comfortable and convenient to stay where you are.

Maybe you just don’t know what to do. You don’t know whether to go left or to go right or stay in the middle. You don’t have clear direction about moving forward, yet you desire to go forward; you have become tired of the waiting.

There could be resistance from the enemy. The enemy has seen your potential and is trying to defeat and discourage you, and thwart the plans that God has for you. You listen to the lies of the enemy and you stay bound where you are at.

What are you to do when you are stuck?

1.     Detach from your regular routine. Take time and step away and gain perspective and vision from God. Get a journal and ask God to give you a new vision. Even if you feel like you have already done this before.

2.     As with Jonah (read Jonah Chapter 3), he ran away from God and his calling, but God was giving him a second chance in God’s work. You may feel as though you are disqualified from serving God because of your past mistakes, but God may be giving you a second chance. Believe God is not done with you, no matter how many mistakes and failures that you have had.

3.     If you feel you can’t go back to the past but not able to go forward yet, seek God and ask Him to you if you are in a transition period before your new season comes. Many people do not like to wait for things, and if you are truly in a waiting and transitioning season then it is important to wait on God for His leading.

4.     As you live your life for God, determine not to trust in your own strength or abilities. Sometimes, we are fearful to move forward because we believe we can’t, not realizing it is not us but God that can. Do what you can now, even if it seems small and insignificant because God rejoices in what is right not necessarily what is big. Be faithful right where you are, and whatever God has given you to do now. Begin where you are at and do what you can, and leave the results to God. Don’t try and force promotion, recognition, your ministry, or even change. Let God on His time promote and give if He sees fit. Reframe your mind. Do not despise the small beginnings. Rethink your new opportunities, even if you feel they are small, and prayerfully consider that God may have you exactly where He wants you.

5.     Don’t compare yourself where you are at in life to where others are at in life. This will cause you to move ahead of God’s timing, or resent where you are at now. There is a season for everything, and a time for everything.

6.     Be willing to release and let go of your past and as the Holy Spirit leads you to move forward. Leaving the past behind you may feel sadness, depression, isolation, and loneliness, these negative feelings may cause you to cling to your past because it’s too painful to let go. Ask the Holy Spirit what you need to let go in your past.

7.     Be free and at peace to wait for God to open the door of new opportunity, and step out when He gives new opportunities.

Embrace new opportunities and see them as second chances from God. If fear has a tightening grip around you to move forward, know that God is not sending you fear. Be strong and very courageous. Never think it is over, God is in the business of do-overs. 

Living in the Present, Taking it One Day at a Time

How many of us, if we are honest, live stressed-out and anxious/worried about tomorrow? If you answered yes to that question, you are not alone. When we live our lives projecting tomorrow’s outcomes we forfeit the grace God supplies to us daily, not in lump sums. How many of us try and store God’s grace for us? We believe with enough planning and control we can predict outcomes as well as secure our future. But we could not be more wrong. How many of us have tried to get a close handle on our lives by predicting the outcomes of our lives. We try and analyze and figure-out every possible outcome and situation until we become exhausted and frustrated. Life happens and we cannot live on tomorrow’s provisions for today.

Living in the past or projecting the future will cause stress, anxiety, worry, fear, fatigue and possible illness. Some of us try and live in the past because we have not “settled” our past or properly let-go and healed our hurts as well as past failures. Some of us try and figure out future outcomes because we live in fear and at the root of that fear is a lack of trust in God. We might say we trust God but deep down where no one else can see, we felt we have been let down by God, forgotten by Him, or discouraged in the waiting process. So we take matters into our own hands because we feel God has not come through for us. We don’t want to admit this because we might look bad or maybe others may not think we are really Christians, or for that matter even love God. I will be the first to say that I love God, the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit and I am a born-again believer but I have struggled in this area of control and trust. At times the control and trust waxes and wanes but underneath it all, I have struggled to make sense of some very difficult matters in my life. I hope I am not alone in this. I have prayed for certain things, people, and desires for years and sometimes they have become worse, and other times it is a slow trickle to the desired outcome I want, and then there are those prayers and cries that seem to go unnoticed. I said seemed to go unnoticed, because do our prayers really go unnoticed or is it not the time or maybe something that would not be in our best interest? I have so many questions, I am sure like you that I don’t know the answers to. Such as the inability to have children, desiring to be married, sickness of a child/family member, health issues, or even the pain a parent feels for their prodigal child. I have felt many of these personally and I can say for me that is why I developed a need to be in control, secure my future, and to analyze my life because nothing seemed to be in control, so I took control. I projected my future because I lived in fear. Fear of the unknown, fear things will not get better, fear that it will always be this way. Fear causes you to think and behave irrationally. Life seemed uncertain and unpredictable to me so I had to take over and mange my life.

Taking life as it comes and living in the present day is a great way to allow your fears to take a backseat. Living in the past will also cause you great stress, so being and living in the day you have is very healing. Why be anxious for the things you truly do not know will or won’t happen, or why live in regret and past failures? This is not easy to do if you have tried to control your life or try and project possible outcomes of your future. This will not be easy, but let’s start with surrendering. Surrendering all forms of control, figuring-out, analyzing, and living in past regrets. This also entails trusting God with your life and the lives of others you love. This step requires faith and letting-go.

If you live one day at a time, God will supply you the grace you need for that day, to handle the problems and situations that happen that day. However, you can’t take today’s grace and store it for tomorrow. God supplies what you need for that day, not on yesterday or tomorrow. Think about how stress-free you will feel when you live in the present.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34, NIV

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:34, Message

Additional resources from author:

Online Christian Counseling: www.gospelguidance.com/adviors/5311-sreck

Natural herbal remedies for treating depression, anxiety, etc. Go to my website@ www.christianhopecounseling.com

And click on Native Remedies link.

Trouble with negative thinking? Check out my book, Wilderness Mentality Stop Your Stinkin’ Thinkin @www.createspace.com/4036785

The Seasons are Changing, Arise to Your New Destiny

What a “season” this has been spiritually. It has been a time for planting in the harvest, a time of refinement, a time of cutting away from the former things of the past for many true followers of Christ. It has been a long and difficult season, and so many people of God are ready for change and transition into their new season. For many Christians there has been a “wilderness” journey that they have been on. The wilderness is lonely, discouraging and at times depressing. The wilderness is a place of change and a place of cutting away those things that have hindered our walk with the Lord.

Before entering into your new destiny you must purge and remove the things of the past completely. Let go of things and relationships that have not worked and caused you great suffering and heartache. Let God bring forth the relationships, ministries and outcomes during this time. Don’t hold on to the things of the past. Let God finish the purging and refining work He has started.

A fresh wind of the Holy Spirit is coming forth to bring life to the hopeless and reveal truth in the midst of darkness. It is a time like no other. A time to be born-again and to enter into His kingdom. Many have prayed for loved ones salvation, the return of prodigals, and the return of loves ones who have walked away from the Lord. They will have to make a choice soon which master they will serve, and you will know very clearly their position.

Time is near for the end of the kingdom here on earth, the kingdom here that is ruled by satan and his cohorts. Preparations are being made for the return of the Messiah. Do you discern the times we are in? Let nothing get in your way of watching and looking for the return of the Messiah. So many Christians are living stressed, burdened, and troubled lives, but look away from those things of the world and focus on His return and preparing for His return? Are you ready for His return? Have you made your relationships right? Have you repented from sin and turned away from your sin? Have you shared the Gospel with your family? Do you share the Gospel when you can? Have you forgiven yourself and others? Not all people will accept this way of life. To enter His kingdom is narrow and many will choose the wide path or gate. The wide path seems easier, but it leads to death. His kingdom will have no end and will go on for eternity.

Jesus is preparing a place for all of His believers. The enemy knows his time is short on earth and has assaulted, distracted, discouraged, destroyed and annihilated a lot of followers of Christ. But arise today, you are part of the chosen generation, a royal priesthood and you will arise to complete the finishing assignments to your life and destiny. Do not be distracted by the ones who call themselves Christians, but follow after their own lustful desires and live continually disobedient to Christ and His word. Do not be deceived by them. The ones that follow Christ will be known by their fruit. Let Jesus do the work in the lives of the ones who are not following Christ, otherwise you will get entangled and trapped in their endless needs, issues, and problems. You will know those who truly follow Christ, they will repent of their sins and turn away from their sins. Turn away means not to repeatedly engage in the sin. Those that live in continual bondage to sin are not true followers of Christ. They may know Christ, they may even know the Word, but they don’t follow Christ. There is a tearing away of the “wheat from the tares.” You may be noticing the tearing away and you may be noticing you are undergoing changes. Hold fast, be unwavering in your convictions for Christ and He will bring you through this time. It is a time like no other.

Our ultimate destiny is our eternal home with Christ. For true followers of Christ, our destiny is being prepared. Arise, your destiny awaits you. The world will soon be dissolved and we will rule and reign with our Messiah in the New Jerusalem.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time.

Revelation 12:12

The devil begins to step up his persecution because he knows his time is limited. We are living in the last days, and satan’s work has become more intense. Even though he is very powerful, as we can see by the condition of the world, he is always under God’s control. One of the reasons God allows satan to work evil and bring temptation is so that those who pretend to be Christ’s followers will be weeded out from Christ’s true believers. Knowing that the last great confrontation with Jesus is near, satan is desperately trying to recruit as great an enemy force as possible for this final battle.

And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

I John 2:28-29

The visible proof of being a Christian is right behavior. Many people do good works but don’t have faith in Jesus Christ. Others claim to have faith in Jesus Christ but rarely produce good works. Those who claim to have faith and consistently do what is right are true believers.

Beloved, we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we should be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

1 John 3:2-3

The Christian life is a process of becoming more and more like Christ. This process will not be complete until we see Christ face to face, but knowing that is our ultimate destiny should motivate us to purify ourselves. To purify means to keep morally straight, free from the corruption of sin.

Additional resources from author:

Online Christian Counseling: www.gospelguidance.com/advisors/5311-sreck

Latest book publication, Wilderness Mentality, Stop your Stinkin’ Thinkin’: www.createspace.com/4036785

YouTube Videos on Hope & Encouragement: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOEcx8uKfKE