ever feel like you're in a rut?

by Jennifer Hoyt

  1 Corinthians 2:9-16:"But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

    Ever Feel Like We're in a Rut?     Ever feel like you're stuck in a never-ending loop of "Groundhog Day"? Like nothing ever changes, and you’re powerless to make things better for your family or yourself? Been there, done that, and got the T-shirt!
 
     Here's the thing: change is a constant part of life whether we realize it or not. Unless we've found a way to freeze time (in which case, please share your secrets), change is always happening. But feeling stuck? That’s usually more about our mindset and emotions than our circumstances. We might feel like nothing changes, but that's not true. If we want to feel differently, we must take charge of our mindset and emotions and bring them to God. Emotions are as fickle – here one moment, gone the next. They can be as unreliable as our Wi-Fi during a Zoom meeting. Our feelings will lie to us, while our mindset or intellect will back up these erroneous feelings with a mountain of “evidence.” This is where our spirit, connected with the Holy Spirit, steps in. What’s the real truth about our situation? What does God say about our situation?


     If we feel like we’re in a rut, here’s the good news: we can change it! First, we need to tackle the mindset that’s easily bullied by strong emotions. We need to get ahold of the truth and rehearse it in our mind as many times as the lie pops up. If we’re in a rut – we can get out of the rut. If we’re stuck – we can unstick ourselves! God gave us the incredible ability through our will and choices to submit things to Him, get His word about the matter, and then partner with Him by praying for it and declaring it, until we see it established. 
If we’re stuck because we don’t know how to make the necessary changes, this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit dwells within us to teach, instruct, and bring the mind of Christ and the heart of the Father. 1 Corinthians 2: 9-16 (above) asks, who knows another person’s thoughts but the spirit within them? Can we read each other's minds? Of course not! But we do know our own thoughts, and we CAN know the thoughts of the Father because His spirit resides within us. So important to catch that! God's thoughts can be known by us through His spirit that indwells us. He has planned amazing things for those who love Him. The Bible tells us that God has plans for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us.


     Here’s the kicker: we can partner with God to bring about change through our obedience and declarations. If we don’t know how to make the changes, we should ask, knock, seek – and repeat! God desires a relationship with us and He cares about how you are feeling. I think it's time more sons and daughters got a word in their spirit for their situation and began to pray, declare and repeat until they see God's word, which never returns to Him null and void - come to fruition. We get to be part of initiating our own change by asking the Holy Spirit how to make the necessary changes and then taking faithful steps of obedience. We are not stuck. The same Holy Spirit that walked the earth with Jesus resides within us.
     
     God has great plans for us, and if we hear and obey, He will give us the grace to perform the tasks He has called us to - sometimes that means we have to wait and be faithful and patient in our time of waiting. If we don’t know what to do keep – asking, seeking, knocking – repeat. The difficult, but simple truth, is, we can't be ruled by our feelings. What we don’t manage will manage us (so we have to manage our feelings). The secret I've found to feeling differently, is to change the direction of my thoughts toward praise and gratefulness, while asking God for the bigger picture and how I can align myself with His will.
Bless you as you walk out the Word in your life!

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