Friday, April 8, 2005

How to escape the ruts...

 

Hi, i'd like to say goodmorning and i hope your doing alright during all the things going on in the world. I have a question and would like your opinion. In a hypathetical situation like a man or group of people stranded on an island and cannot get off although they are trying everyday, its been years and maybe a few decades..why would they be in that situation? is that where God needed them to be for a serious reason? This is more of a metaphor to compare to some others lives where they feel stuck, in a rut, hopeless ect.... ` CJ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Not knowing all about what you are meaning, I can relate to this from my own experience. We need God to get us out of the ruts of this life. One man said that a rut is a grave with the end open. Use the open end to reach out to God. Without God we cannot move forwards.  

We come to God through his son Jesus, who took our sins to the cross. Trust in Jesus puts us into a new covenant relationship with God. He becomes our way and our strength and all things are possible through him. If we are trusting God we know we are where he wants us. As Paul said:

Phil 4:12  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Phil 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Part 1: Random thoughts:    Life is about change and exchange. We are called to be ever growing towards Him; radiating His light and likeness to the world in which we temporarily live. But growing pains come and the battle rages within us. Conqueror or run the risk of stagnation. We know that all too well.
   Deuteronomy 2:3 says, "You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north." How long have you been going around the "mountains" in your life? Perhaps it is time to make a change in thinking. Is "north" something that is that scary for you? Is doing the same thing, making the same mistakes, running into the same dead-ends really that preferable compared to a new and better destination?
   Genesis 19:22 (When God sent angels to get Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah...which by the way they were reluctant...even though it was going to be destroyed) The passage states: "Hurry,escape therefor I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Sometimes and hopefully most times we ask God for guidance. How many times have we been prompted by our Lord... to move into the place where He could bless us and yet we chose to stay on our island of self-sufficiency, pride, egotism and comfortable surroundings?  All the time continuing to circle the same mountain. Because the mountain is often times large, we are deceived because the scenery seems to be changing; when really it is our memory playing tricks. It is the same old thing. Should that "mountain" be very small, we should realize the fullness of our folly and change course, unless we are very good liars.(And we seem to be )There are none so successfully deceived as those who are self-deceived.
   

Anonymous said...

Random thoughts; Part3
These patterns are areas where we have unconquered ground. David when confronted with Goliath; looked at his experiences and knew that this "giant" would be as one of the many things he had dealt with before. This would be no different. We need to think along that line instead of taking the position of the ten spies over Joshua and Caleb. When we hunger and thirst for God above all else He will give us the desires of our heart. When His Word becomes primary; things happen. We know we are to renew our minds. Being able to quote a Scripture in every situation; does not in any way mean the mind is renewed.
   Every day we make choices in our lives. Tired? Tired of circling the "mountain"? The question remains: What will you do about?

Anonymous said...

Random thoughts; Part 2
What makes up a stronghold? Strongholds are habit structures of thinking; a fortress of thought. How can you recognize a stronghold? It's when you get into a pattern of thinking or action that you don't even bother to fight anymore. You just accept it and live that way. Is it possible to make changes in your life after having thought one way for so long?
    Imagine your mind-set as a truck that has traveled down the same path on a grassy field.You can easily picture that where the truck has gone repeatedly...there is no grass; only dirt. And should the pattern continue; ruts will begin to go very deep into the earth so that you could even release the steering wheel and the truck could continue it's path with ease.
   Now go "north",and instead staying in the "rut;" you now cross the ruts. You are now going in a totally opposite direction. It is very easy to let wheels slip back into same "comfortable"  ruts. Now it takes great effort to keep the wheels out of them. That's true it will take effort because it is easy to fall back into old patterns. But; imagine too that if the pattern is kept up that soon there will be "ruts" that are established going "north",or shall we say going in the right direction.