Hammer on Anvil '

This post is for my dear brothers and sisters who seem to perpetually find themselves "stuck" when it comes to doing life. You know the drill:

•  You do all the things you think you're supposed to do in order to be considered a good Christian.
• You get exhausted and then find yourself in a funk for a couple weeks in which you really don't care if you ever do ANYthing.
• You beat yourself up because you're such a lousy Christian.
• You finally collapse in tears and ask God to forgive you for being so lame.
• The cycle starts all over again.

Sound familiar? I have been there a number of times myself. Since I can empathize with what you may be experiencing at this very moment, I pray this blog will bring hope and encouragement, and some light into your darkness.

I think one of the biggest hurdles in our Christian pilgrimage is to realize that Jesus has freed us. John 8:36 says, "If the Son sets you free, you are truly free" (New Living Translation). So the question is, do you feel free? Or do you feel, as Christian did in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, that you're on an arduous journey with a 100-pound backpack weighing you down?

Here are some major offenders that keep people in bondage:

• traumatic childhood (which may include physical, verbal or sexual abuse)
• unhealthy relationships
• unhealthy habits/addictions
• faulty body image (this mostly affects women)
• persecution complex ("why does everything always happen to ME?")
• perfectionism (perpetual frustration because nobody is perfect, including you)
• others' opinions
• believing lies (e.g. "God made me this way" -- which sometimes is an excuse for not making the hard changes you need to make in your life to align with His Word)
• self-vindication (always thinking you have to explain yourself if you don't think somebody understands you)

There are many more offenders, I'm sure, but these are the ones that came to mind as I prayed about this blog. If you see yourself in any of these scenarios, there is hope, my friends!

One of the things that has weighed me down over the years is that I analyze too much. And if I can't understand something or someone, I set to work trying to figure it out so that it makes sense to me -- because it really bugs me when things don't make sense. Then God opened my eyes to a Scripture I have known for decades -- but one which struck at the root of my sin. It was Proverbs 3:5:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

God showed me that the reason for my frustration was my own sin; instead of trusting Him, I had been trying to figure everything out so that it made sense. In other words, I was leaning on my own understanding rather than trusting Him.

I heard a sermon recently in which the pastor said a successful Christian pilgrimage boils down to whether you believe God is crazy about you. At first I thought it was too simplistic, but think about it -- if we don't truly believe God loves us, or if we are so burdened by past sins that we've convinced ourselves He can't possibly forgive us -- how can we grasp the truth that He has set us free?

The blood of the very Son of God was shed to purchase our freedom, my dear friends. Paul urges, in Galatians 5:1, that we not allow ourselves to be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

I encourage you today to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Ask Him to show you what is weighing you down and keeping you from being an effective witness for Christ. And when He shows you, begin right away to make necessary changes (repentance, after all, means changing). You may need to repent about some things, or you may need to simply worship God and thank Him for reminding you that He has made you free.

Finally, remember Romans 8:1, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Walk in freedom!