Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in your Christian walk? Do you look around and see other believers growing spiritually, experiencing peace and joy, being used in various areas of ministry … and wonder why it’s not you? Are you tempted to believe it’s because of your difficult marriage, because your spouse is not a believer, because you’re still single, because of your parents, or because of another person or circumstance? None of us is immune to those feelings. But could there be another reason and could making some adjustments in your thinking actually cause you to start growing exponentially?
Today’s Readings:
Deuteronomy 3 & 4
Psalm 36.7-12
Proverbs 12.7
Luke 1.1-20
How to Get Unstuck & Start Growing
Deuteronomy 3 & 4:
How We Get Stuck
Where do you feel stuck … in an unhappy marriage, in singleness, or in a rut of your own making or someone else’s?
We can get stuck in a lot of things … in our thinking, in a habitual way of responding, in an attitude, in the belief that things will never change.
But is it possible that there are things we can control that will not only get us unstuck but help us start growing … really growing?
Let’s look at one major way we get stuck and the sticky things it produces.
Stuck on Finger-Pointing
Finger-pointing … blame-shifting or whatever you want to call it. None of us seems to be free from the tendency to blame someone or something else for our sins or the fact that we’re stuck where we are.
This nasty habit started at the beginning of human history. After Adam and Eve had both disobeyed God, He confronted them with a question:
” … Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Gen. 3.11).
Most of us remember their responses. The woman blamed the devil. Adam blamed the woman and God Himself.
Even Moses?
Look at Moses’ statement in today’s reading. As he was recounting their journey through the wilderness, he said:
Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance (4.21).
It sounds like Moses was saying, you guys made me angry and now I can’t go into the Promised Land.
If I had been Moses, I’m sure I would have been tempted to point the finger at them. After all, he had led them for 40 years, even interceding for them when God threatened to wipe them out. He was their intermediary. God met and spoke to him personally. But then they tempted him one more time! He must have felt it was the last straw.
No One Can Make Us Angry
But the truth is, no one can make us angry or bitter or faithless or any of the dozens of ways we sin. Oh, they can do things to provoke us to sin, but we still choose how we’re going to respond.
The pokes and prods from outside of us only reveal what is in us. Jesus said it this way:
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man (Matt. 15.18).
And that tendency to shift the blame ends up hurting us and our walks with God (Matt. 6.14-15). Proverbs 28.13 says:
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
When we cover our sin, we stay stuck.
How to Get Unstuck & Start Growing
If we’re going to get unstuck and start growing, we must deal with what’s going on in our own hearts. When we respond with sinful anger, the silent treatment, cultivating bitterness, or some other sinful response, we must confess it, ask for forgiveness, and take responsibility for our own attitudes and responses.
We can’t do that as long as we’re pointing the finger somewhere else. Jesus said we’re hypocrites if we do (Matt. 7.3-5). But when we confess and forsake our sinful responses, it allows us to start growing and to experience peace and joy regardless of our circumstances (Rom. 2.9-10).
But it’s not enough to just deal with our outward behavior, we need to deal with our thinking and what’s going on in our hearts.
Challenges, hurts, and annoyances come to us all. And if we don’t deal with them biblically, it’s like having an inner gunny sack where we keep adding things. Even if we manage to control it for a while, eventually it will get too full and all that ugliness will come spilling out.
We must learn to process everything in our lives differently so we can get rid of the gunny sack and start growing.
A New Way of Thinking Helps Us Start Growing
First, we need to start processing everything in our lives through the sovereignty of God. Everything that happens to us has been filtered through God’s loving hands. If He has allowed it, He can and will use it for our good and His glory if we belong to Him (Rom. 8.28).
Romans 8.28 reminds us of that fact. But the good He has promised isn’t always what feels good at the moment. In fact, it may feel pretty rotten. It may even involve someone else’s sin. But the very next verse says this:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8.29).
God is using the test, trials, circumstances, and people in our lives to help us start growing into the “image of His Son.” And as we grow, we experience more and more of the peace, joy, and blessedness that God wants us to have.
How Knowing God Helps Us
Second, we need to learn more about God and His character. Understanding His love, goodness, wisdom, power, and omniscience (the fact that He knows everything that has happened, is happening, and ever will happen) will help us trust Him more. Recognizing His immutability will help us remember that just as He cared for His people in the past, He will care for us. Contemplating His mercy will help us extend mercy to others.
But we can’t just know about God intellectually, we need to live in ways that demonstrate that we don’t just believe in Him but we believe His Word. When people annoy, hurt, or sin against us (and they will), we need to respond the way God says we should. Let’s start with annoyances.
Annoyances
Many things people do are not sin issues or, if they are, they’re not worth majoring on. Many of them concern preference issues. To use a cliche, you want the toilet seat down and he leaves it up.
It’s all too easy to think someone else’s preferences or idiosyncrasies or their tendency to forget are done on purpose to annoy us. But we don’t know anyone else’s heart (Jer. 17.9). We barely know our own.
We can let love cover those things.
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4.8).
Even if something is intentional, we are still responsible for our response, including our thinking.
When Sinned Against
And even if it’s sinful, their sin does not give us the right to sin in return.
Let’s say someone jumps into the parking space you’ve been waiting for. Is it right? No. If it was intentional, it’s rude and selfish, but how should you respond?
You can make one of those lovely hand gestures, let the anger rise up in you, and vent to no one in particular (still sinful, by the way, because we live our lives in the presence of God every moment). You can get sinfully angry in front of your children or someone else. Or you can not deal with it at all and simply throw it in the gunny sack.
Or you can let love cover it. You can remind yourself of all the mercy God shows you and how you want to please Him with your life and you can let it go.
By the way, if you’re still brooding about it as you walk into the mall or if you’re looking around so you can give the other person the look, you didn’t let it go. And you certainly didn’t let love cover it.
Overcome Evil with Good
Of course, some sins are much bigger than a lost parking place. Those situations call for serious weapons. If you want to start growing exponentially, understanding this is essential.
Romans 12 says:
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Notice verse 21 is a command, “Do not … overcome …” We aren’t to be defeated by evil. We are to overcome it by doing good.
How to Overcome Evil with Good
If the person who has sinned against you is your spouse or someone close to you, look for ways to show kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (Eph. 4.31-32). Pray for them. Could they be having a bad day? Help them win their battle with the flesh with your response.
Even with a stranger, you can forgive in your heart and respond with kindness. Could he or she be an unbeliever? Pray for them. Remember the grace God has shown you and extend it to them.
You can thank God for the opportunity to practice growing in love and grace. Remind yourself that God has commanded us to not seek revenge, even in passive-aggressive ways (dirty looks, sarcasm, the silent treatment, etc.).
When Sin Needs to Be Addressed
This doesn’t mean sin should never be addressed. There are some sins that love can’t and shouldn’t just cover. But they should never be handled in a sinful way. In most cases, they should be addressed gently and prayerfully (Gal. 6.1-2; Matt. 18.15-17) and only after we have examined our own lives for sin (Matt. 7.3-5).
The exception would be if you or someone else is in danger. If there is abuse or violence or laws have been broken, we should make use of God’s other means of grace, including the civil authorities (Rom. 13.1-7) and church leadership (Matt. 18.15-17).
These changes in our responses don’t come naturally. We must be intentional but with God’s help, we can respond in ways that in turn cause us to start growing into the likeness of Christ (Heb. 5.12-14). And this can happen, not just in spite of the people and circumstances God has placed in our lives, but in some ways, because of them as God uses them as instruments in His loving hands.
Lord, help us to understand that your way, while not always the easy way, is the right way. It’s the way to true peace, joy, and contentment. It’s the way that brings You glory. Give us the strength and the wisdom to let love cover what we can, to forgive what love can’t cover, and to trust You for the results. Let us be lights shining out in a dark world that desperately needs Your Son. In His name. Amen.
Today’s Other Readings:
Psalm 36.7-12:
Where Do You Put Your Trust?
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings (v. 7).
God’s lovingkindness is His goodness. If we truly understand the love and goodness of God, we will find it easier to put our trust in Him and do things His way rather than trusting in ourselves.
Proverbs 12.7:
The House of the Righteous
The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.
God watches over and protects His people here on earth. While He doesn’t protect us from every hurt, disappointment, or loss, nothing can happen to us that isn’t first filtered through His loving hands.
But as for the wicked, either they will repent or God will deal with them now or for eternity or both.
Luke 1.1-20:
Faith & Certainty
I’m excited to get into this third gospel account, written by Luke the Physician. Luke wrote both this gospel and the book of Acts. He was the only Gentile to write any of the books of the Bible. Luke starts his account earlier than the other gospel writers—even before the conception of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist.
Expect to learn exciting things as we begin this third account of the life of our Lord while He was here on earth!
Luke lays out his reason for writing in verses 3-4:
3 it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
God doesn’t want us to wonder about His truths. He wants us to “know with certainty.” Paul said, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10.17). So the more we read, study, and seek to understand His Word, the more our faith and certainty will grow.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll look at self-righteousness, what can keep us from losing heart, parenting God’s way, why it’s so important to remember God in all His fullness, and consider what the Bible has to say about animal rights.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss them.
This year I’ve added a couple of new features. First, check out the “Free Resources” tab at the top. You’ll find a downloadable, printable PDF with “Going Deeper Study Questions” for each day’s readings and a list of all the Bible readings so you can check them off as you go. You’ll also find the readings for each day on YouTube. The daily emails now have a link to both these Soul Survival posts and the YouTube videos. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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