08/22/2022
Are we stuck in a spiritual rut? Do we have blinders on like a work horse, and plod along through every day satisfied with not seeing anything more than a limited view of what faith and righteousness means? Why are we fixed in our ways and not searching to know anything more about Jesus Christ? Are we content with not experiencing anything new in God’s Word? Ruts are easy to fall into, and once we are there they can be very hard to get out of. So if God’s love is like a road that has no end, and his mercies are new every morning, why is it that we often find ourselves satisfied with a still photograph of who we saw Him to be, or what He once taught us as children?
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
Ruts… I remember driving up the long dirt road that led to my grandfather’s farm on the hill. Rain, mules, and wooden wagon wheels, would turn it into a quagmire, and form deep trails that would harden when the sun came out again. I would try to keep to the high ground between them, but it was hard to do, and invariably my wheels would slide off into one, and it would hold me there as I tried desperately to regain the high ground once more. I needed to find new ground.
““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV
These deep wallows would guide my car if I would let them, but they would also jerk it around as they did so, and cause me to slip off the road into a runoff ditch on one side or the other. The ride would become rougher, and the ruts deeper, the more they were traveled. This is true of sin, and our faith too. The more we we travel the ruts, the deeper they become, and the harder it is to find the smooth ride that awaits us. When we escape sin, and find the fresh and newly travelled ground of a higher faith in Jesus, our lives become easier to traverse, the path of righteousness becomes smooth, and life is less dangerous for our souls as we struggle to travel the narrow way.
“As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end…”
Hebrews 12:1-2 GNTD
So how do we escape the ruts of sin, or pull ourselves out of the spiritual traps we might find ourselves in; the traps we find in a faith that is no longer growing? We do so by opening our eyes to God’s Word, listening for His voice in every breeze, and every whisper; we walk through life pulling hard, and relentlessly against the ruts until at last we find God’s hand and he guides us further in our faith to a higher place, and we defeat the sin through God’s strength and grace that saves us from it… through our renewed faith in Christ… our redeemer.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:17 ESV
We all know about the wages of sin being death, but let’s ask ourselves again whether or not we are stuck in a spiritual rut. Let’s ask ourselves if our faith is ever advancing, and leading us safely across the narrow bridges, and smoothly over the roads marred with ruts that wait to ensnare us, and impede our progress. Are we increasing in Christ?
“For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:9-11 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for protecting us from evil, and helping us to resist sin, but thank you more for our ever increasing faith that lifts us higher each day, and brings us closer to you. Help us Lord to resist the temptation that calls to us, and desires us to remain fixed in our present understanding of you, Jesus, and our faith. Keep us from becoming satisfied with this small measure of what you want to heap upon us in unending abundance. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who opens our eyes further each day to who you are, and what we can become. Praised be your name for every new revelation into your Word, and for each encounter we have with Jesus that increases us in our righteousness, and faith. You are merciful Father, and your goodness is without end. You grace and love know no end, and your judgement is perfect. Wash us clean of all sin with the blood of Jesus, and never let us turn away from you in an attempt to remain unchanging, and safely fixed, in our faithfulness. Guide our steps, and make them eternal as we seek to know your presence more fully. Don’t find that we have buried our faith like the servant in the parable of the talents buried his master’s talent, and never find us to be satisfied with presenting back to you what we were first given. Judge us worthy Holy Father, and seat us before you forevermore… call us good and faithful children as we stand before you.
“so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Matthew 25:25, 27-29 ESV
Rich Forbes