Unstuck

I say it all the time, today is going to be the day. Today, I’m going to stop… you name it, eating out of control, worrying about everything, swearing, procrastinating, making excuses, buying stuff I don’t need, etc. etc. …

Today if we want, we can choose to make the greatest decision a human being can make, one that will lead to our being unstuck, to getting free through God like you never have before. Let me explain. Last week I wrote about being stuck and how God wants to free us. “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”. God wants you to be free from destructive habits, from addictions, from brokenness, from sin, free not just from bad behavior but also from those kinds of thoughts that just enslave us and trouble us and weigh us down and mislead us.
Our first step is admitting we are powerless over our fatal attraction to doing the wrong thing. Our lives are unmanageable. This is super important. This means it's not that some of us are healthy and some of us are unhealthy. We are all in the same boat. The ground is real level here. Think about this little phrase, "Me too." "I'm a mess." And all of us said, "Me too”. Then the next step is we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Now, part of what this means is I have to recognize I'm a little insane. I'm a little crazy. Apart from God. My mind will be filled with all kinds of crazy temptations and denial and rationalizing and justifying. Only God can put me in my right mind.
Rick Warren is a pastor who has taught a lot about this. He says his favorite story is about this. It's a story that has been around forever. A guy falls off a cliff and grabs a branch on his way down. He's 500 feet down with another 500 feet to the bottom, and he's terrified. He yells out, "Is anybody up there?" The voice of God answers, "I'm God. I'm here. I will take care of you. Trust me. Let go of the branch." The man yells, "Is there anybody else up there?" There is nobody else up there. In the book of Proverbs, the writer says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” In other words. Let go. Let go of your need to have your way, and let God direct your paths. Another verse puts it like this, and I love these words. Surrender your heart to God. Stretch out your arms to him. Surrender your heart. Stretch out your hands. Let go. Let God
My part is just to trust. It is to surrender. It is to give up my life. God's part is to catch and to hold, to do in me and with me and for me what I cannot do for myself.
This is from his letter to the church at Rome. (Romans 7:15-25) "What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise”. [...]I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me...""I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? "Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.”
The Word became flesh… So let’s get some skin in the game.
Timmy B

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