Stuck
Stuck
By Liz King
Have you ever felt stuck or maybe spiritually blocked? Do you feel like you are pushing up against an invisible wall, unable to move forward in your walk with Christ? Do you feel frustrated or defeated? Do you want to give up? Have you already given up? Many Christians feel this way sometimes. Sometimes they are knocked down and find it very difficult to get back up. Some give up altogether. I've been in this situation many times.
My life as a believer in Jesus was a lot easier before I truly sold out to Christ. In the beginning I lived more the way I wanted and focused on what I wanted rather than what God wanted. I truly lived a life of spiritual compromise. I entertained things that did not glorify God and it hardened my heart to the Holy Spirit speaking to me and the things of God. It really made my spiritual discernment malfunction. I honestly questioned God’s truth. To be honest, before I completely surrendered my entire life to Jesus, I really didn’t have much spiritual push back from the enemy and I lived comfortably in my spiritual life in a sense. In the words of Marcu Rogers I lived a gummy bear Christianity life. I still had things in my life happen that were difficult but I lived in my power and not Gods.
The moment people surrender their lives to Jesus, there is a breath of new life. There is Joy in the discovery of Him. We run after him with passion. We begin to see Him speak in our life and move and then, the adversity really begins. The enemy begins to try to knock us down as hard as they can. It may be from our past trauma, or that our desires and our wants are challenged. We may experience more attacks from people we love, our coworkers, finances, abusers, or even obsessive negative thoughts, and lies we tell ourselves or listen to, honestly the list is endless. Before we may have been cowardly or fought with others. We might have functioned in pride, anger, and unforgiveness. A life surrendered to Jesus goes against our flesh and our mindset. We are called to act differently than we want to.
A life surrendered to Jesus challenges us. It also challenges the enemy. Satan and his minions become afraid and begin pushing back because they know your full potential in Christ. They know what you will be capable of, especially if you are able to live in freedom. The reason you didn’t struggle as much before you were surrendered to Jesus was because you weren’t a threat to them. You were comfortable in the delusion that you were spiritually okay, but you were spiritually inactive. You were spiritually dead or spiritually asleep. You probably weren’t in God’s word or had a very weak prayer life. The moment the enemy sees that we are truly seeking God, the attacks start and they are designed to make us give up and become dysfunctional. They want us to be useless in the kingdom of God. They don’t have to fight a useless Christian, they have to fight a productive, active Christian. When you get knocked down, do you get back up and keep pushing forward? How much confrontation with the enemy does it take before you give up and live a defeated spiritual existence? Have you even turned away from God?
I remember games from my youth like Super Mario Bros and Bonk’s Great Adventure. Bonk’s Great Adventure is one I played on my brother’s Sega Genesis. You had three tries before you had to start over. Every time you were hit it would drain some of your life and you would get up and keep going. When your three lives were wasted you would start again at the beginning of the level and get better each time, avoiding the attacks and you were able to get further in the game. There were times I would completely give up. It was too frustrating. I’d quit or I would just stay stuck on a level. That’s how it can be in our spiritual life sometimes. The enemy will knock us down and sometimes it’s too hard to get back up. The enemy uses what hurts us most and God challenges us in our set ways, our addictions, beliefs, and pride. Sometimes it feels like it's just too much. Maybe there are certain things you struggle with and you get stuck or exhausted and just want to give up. Maybe you have quit fighting all together and now just live to be comfortable or just exist. It's dangerous to live comfortably when it comes to your spiritual walk with Jesus.
Comfort is good but Jesus never promised us a comfortable walk with Him. He said it was a narrow and hard road that not many people find. If we are walking in comfort and not facing opposition in our walk we need to reevaluate our walk. A comfortable Christian is not a threat to Satan. There will be hills and valleys but it’s not constant hills with Jesus, there are hardships and trials. I heard a former Christian say that He battled with things that were in the Bible and didn’t agree with and struggled with his faith. He said the moment he quit fighting and believed the things the way he wanted he didn’t struggle anymore and no longer considered himself a Christitan. In Romans chapter 1: 18-32 (posted below) it says that God will give us over to the lie we want to believe or desire and then we no longer feel conviction or guilt towards the sin. He gives us over to the things we entertain. The Bible is not about our truth, but Gods’. The Bible challenges our truth; it is meant to train and help us be holy like God is holy. It’s to train us in righteousness, not ourselves.
Is there a sin you struggle with? Is there something God has told you to surrender but you haven’t? Are there things you're unwilling to give up? Do You have more faith in yourself than you do in God? Do you feel like you want to give up? Do you feel stuck? Are you just going through motions and unable to persevere? I’ve felt like this and at times I just gave up trying or put as little effort I could while thinking I was putting in effort. Why was I failing? Why was I falling? Why could I not seem to succeed and persevere? It was because my connection to God was being attacked. It was my laziness. I had begun to slack in my walk and that left an open door to the enemy. My prayer life had become affected and getting in God’s word was no longer a priority. That broke my connection with God the giver of life, I glided by in life. Many people determine their Christian walk and salvation on how many times you attend a church service. A sermon can’t save you, It’s a relationship with Jesus that saves us and that relationship requires surrender.
Why do we fail and get stuck in our walk and unable to get up to keep pushing forward when spiritual warfare takes place. It’s because many times we are walking our faith in our own power and our own logic, our own effort, absent of surrender to God. When we take over our relationship with Jesus and tell him how we are gonna live and believe or try to fight spiritual battles on our own, we will fail. We can’t live in the truth if we are fighting the truth. We will never win. We will get stuck. We will be defeated. When you are in battle you do not desert the ones who will protect you. There is safety in numbers. Jesus is your safety. If you leave the safety of the shepherd, or you get distracted away from the shepherd, you will be devoured by the wolves. So if you are stuck, get your focus back on Jesus, His word, His promises, and His truth. If you are experiencing warfare, it means you are doing something right. If you are living in spiritual comfort and acceptance, you are in a very dangerous situation. Remember to get your focus back on the King. Surrender and trust him. Dust yourself off and get back up and grab the Savior's hand. The more you fight him the deeper you get in being stuck in your muck. Only in surrender can Jesus help us out of our spiritual muck and lead us to be more like him. Be active in prayer and actively in His written word. His presence begins to change us on a molecular spiritual level. It will change our thinking, drown out the voices, bring us life and hope, but most of all salvation. Let him do the work. You just follow Him obediently.
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