What To Do When You Are Stuck In A Rut

Our passage gives us the answer

“Oh, my Lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed.”

The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”

Notice

First of all we have got to cry out to the Lord for help.

We can’t make the mistake of pretending to ourselves and to others that nothing is wrong.

If something bad happens and we find ourselves stuck in a spiritual rut we need to admit it/acknowledge it

As men in particular

We are not very quick to admit when we are stuck in a spiritual rut

We could be stuck in a spiritual rut for years and years and never admit it.

So why do we find this man in our passage admitting something terrible was wrong immediately?

It turns out the ahead wasn’t his to begin with – Instead we are told it was borrowed!

Here is the application (Some of us are not going to like this application)

Everything that you and I have -we have because we borrowed it!

It’s all been borrowed from God

Nothing is mine- nothing is yours – it’s all God’s!

God owns everything and he lets us borrow it for a time

It’s not my ministry - it’s God’s ministry

It’s understandable to be stuck in a spiritual rut but it doesn’t make it ok!

Whatever we have lost spiritually in our lives we have got to get it back

We borrowed it from God and we need to give it back to him!

Ref: Parable of the talents

How do you get your spiritual fire back?

The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”

You have to identify the place where we first lost your passion for God.

This may be easy for some of us. This may be hard for some of us.

This may have happened recently for some of us. That may have happened years ago for some of us.

I was really on fire for God and then this happened and I never really got over it.

Maybe someone did something to you or said something to you and it has still left a negative spiritual affect on you.

Sometimes it can be a combination of different things.

But it’s important to try and identify those moments. Why?

God heals us by bringing us back to those moments and he helps us to edit the memories.

He wants to bring those moments back to the surface so he can heal us. So that a miracle can happen

If someone has hurt us then we have to forgive that person. That does not mean we are saying that what they did wasn’t wrong. It just means we don’t want that person to keep us stuck in a spiritual rut.

Lastly and this is something which is clear in our passage.

The only person who can get me out of a spiritual rut is myself..

The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”