Are You Stuck?
When I hear the word stuck, my brain goes back to my 8 year old self, sitting happily in front of the TV watching one of my most beloved Disney cartoons. “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” Released in 1977, the storyline more closely follows that of the classic books by A. A. Milne, with a collection of tales about the sweet, stuffed bear with very little brain. My favorite story, is the one where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s front door, because he ate too much honey while visiting.
“Hallo, are you stuck?” Rabbit asked.
“N-no,” said Pooh carelessly. “Just resting and thinking and humming to myself.”
“Here, give us a paw.”
Pooh Bear stretched out a paw, and Rabbit pulled and pulled and pulled…”Ow!” cried Pooh. “You’re hurting!”
“The fact is,” said Rabbit, “you’re stuck!”
“It all comes,” said Pooh crossly, “of not having front doors big enough.”
“It all comes,” said Rabbit sternly, “of eating too much.”
We can seem to have the same trouble with past sins, as poor Pooh Bear wedged in Rabbit’s door. Why is it, thoughts of dark deeds and moments spent in unsavory places, seem to linger within our memory and refuse to be evicted? Fat, little guilt babies that cannot be pulled or pushed from the tunnels of our minds.
If you are a child of the King, all sins have been forgiven and washed clean under the blood of Jesus Christ, but too often we allow the enemy to hold us captive to our past mistakes and regrets.
When you truly repent of your sinful actions and thoughts, they are as far removed from you as the miles it takes to journey into the abyss of the ocean, and yet the reflection in your mirror tells a different story.
Lines of shame streak across your brow, as the sadness of guilt stare back at you out of tired eyes. Those small little lines that crinkle around the corners of the outer eye, were not earned with laughter, but were caused by the constant scrunching of your face due to overwhelming feelings of worthlessness. Frown lines run deep beside your lips, reminding you of all you lack.
Darkness has placed a veil over our mirrors and minds for far too long. Our Savior died to tear it down, so why do we allow the enemy to keep putting it back up again? If the devil can keep us stuck in the past, he owns our future.
Paul talks briefly about struggling to move forward, as if trampling through molasses, and helps us to understand how we can gain strength, determination and momentum. In Philippians chapter 3, we read that his greatest desire is to know Jesus Christ on a more personal, deeper level, because the Messiah is the greatest prize he could ever receive, with everything else paling in comparison..
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11)
We will do well in trying to mimic Paul in his desire to toss everything aside for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ fully. But I love the honesty we see in the next few verses. Want to talk about someone who could have gotten stuck in their past. Paul (formally Saul), had a resume that would have made heads turn in the courts of the religious leaders. Someone who would have been praised for his efforts in shutting down the rabble seeking to keep the name of Jesus stirred up among the people.
Intimidation, prison and even death were used by Saul and his team to silence the voices of the Lord’s disciples. His past was marked with heaviness and regret- no doubt, but he does not stay there. Let’s read about the tactic Paul uses to move forward in his relationship with the Messiah.
“Not that I have now attained (this idea) or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.” (Philippians 3:12-14 Amp)
In his quest to take his faith relationship deeper, he can honestly admit he is not where he wishes to be… yet. In the same breath and thought, we also see the action Paul is utilizing to reach his desired outcome. Pay attention to his choice of words:
Press on
Straining forward
Forgetting
These are words that denote a struggle, yet have determination. Resistance is present, but met with resilience. Paul does not and will not allow his past actions to dictate the outcome of his future goals, and neither should we. He is fighting, clawing and grasping his way toward the apple of his eye. How is he achieving this? What is the main weapon in his arsenal of forward momentum?
“Forgetting what lies behind" (vs 13)
As we discussed in “Let It Burn”, we must let go of our past sins that have already been covered under the blood of the cross and forgiven. You cannot change your past mistakes, but you can course correct your current trajectory. The enemy will do everything in its power to keep you stuck and standing still, frozen in the last moment of a bad decision.
“Press on and lay hold of” (vs 12)
“Straining forward to what lies ahead” (vs 13)
“Press on toward the goal” (vs 14)
Paul does not sugar coat the struggle. Twice he tells us he “presses on”. It’s not easy. The darkness is very skilled in making you believe the weight of your sin is still there, even after our Lord has removed it. This is totally understandable. Haven’t you ever had something on your body, like a watch on your wrist, that you have worn every day, all day, that even when you take it off, you still “feel” it on?
Satan plays those same mind games with us. We wear our sinfulness for years, decades sometimes, so when we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, he loves to make you believe the weight is still there, dragging you down, making it hard to move- so you stay stuck.
Fight, dear friends! Press onward. Strain forward, reaching out with everything you have and grab ahold of the edge of the Messiah’s robe. Paul understood the difficulty of forgetting your past. How many times do you think he saw a face on the dusty streets of Rome, and was suddenly reminded of one of their family members he had imprisoned? Or perhaps a person would walk by in a marketplace, wearing a garment with similar markings as Stephen’s, the man whose stoning he approved.
Paul was determined to not allow Satan to bind him to his past, so daily, he purposed to fight against the flesh and voices in his head screaming at him. Instead, he focused all his attention and effort into straining and stretching his way toward the truth, his heavenly prize.
What would happen if we fought the devil with this same amount of grit and tenacity? Who would we be, if we refused to succumb to definitions of ourselves which are false? Not sure what bible you have been reading, but mine says:
We are covered in the blood of the Passover Lamb and have been washed clean. (1 John 1:7, Isaiah 53:5)
We have a purpose. (Jeremiah 29:11)
We are precious, priceless and blameless. (Isaiah 43:4, Ephesians 1:4, Colossians 1:22)
We are new creations and the old does not define us. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We are a royal priesthood and holy nation. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. (Matthew 5:13-14)
We are His children. (John 1:12)
We are clean. (John 15:3)
We do not have condemnation any longer. (Romans 8:1)
We are righteous and holy (Ephesians 2:24)
We are redeemed, forgiven and all debt against us has been cancelled. (Colossians 1:14)
This list is just barely scratching the surface. I encourage you to search the scriptures for truths, to counter the lies you are believing that are keeping you stuck and motionless.
The effort will be worth every sore muscle you may have from pulling yourself out of the muck of lying deceit. Starve those guilt babies, so you can remove them from the tunnels in your memories.
And the next time you look into the mirror, I pray you see deeper lines around your eyes and mouth. Not from frowning stimming from disapproval, but due to years of joy and laughter.