If feeling trapped, stuck in a rut, boxed in or any other feeling of being bound up describes you, you’re in good company. Thousands of people in our society feel that way but fortunately for you, your life doesn’t have to be described that way anymore. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in Luke 18:35-43 where a man was sitting on the edge of the road in life, begging. He was blind and couldn’t get out of his situation and he had no alternative but to beg. His blindness was a trap; a box and it was like being knee deep in quicksand and he was stuck in a rut. He had been there for years and it seemed like there was no way out. When we feel trapped, it seems like we don’t have any alternative but to keep on like we’ve been even though we don’t like what we’re becoming. Like the blind man, there’s always at least one other alternative. The one alternative you always have is this:
- You can always ask for help.
That’s what the man did who was in the trap of blindness. He heard that Jesus was passing by and he called out for help and he decided that no longer was he going to be in the trap of blindness, going through life with no vision, not as long as there was Jesus. He cried out for help and Jesus gave him vision and his life changed forever. When you feel trapped, you feel like life is passing you by and you don’t feel comfortable, content or satisfied. Sometimes you feel like you’re not moving ahead and you’re incompetent and don’t feel like yourself much anymore. You may feel isolated and alone but let me tell you something…EVERBODY feels like that at some point. That’s why your Bible is filled with stories about ordinary people like us who’ve had their share of problems they faced or are still facing and God tells us of their pain, shortcomings, strengths and how they overcame their struggles and issues.
The greatest power given to you is the power of choice. Most of our traps begin with making impulsive decisions or poorly made decisions that aren’t thought out and the ones that hurt the most are the ones that we made without looking at the long-term effects. We all know how it feels to be stuck in the rut that was our own doing or our own choice. For instance, when we’re married someone against advice of our family and friends and now all of sudden it’s not working out, or when we’ve taken a job that we can’t stand just because it came along when we were desperate. Again, maybe bought a car because we didn’t want to say “no” to the salesman and now we’re stuck with five years payments. Once we’ve made a crummy choice, followed by another and we feel like there’s no hope that things will never get better and that’s when we do our poorest choices. Why. We feel like all is lost and we have nothing left to lose. Feeling trapped or stuck makes you feel like there’s no way out and that there’s nothing you can do about it and that’s what makes it such a bondage and the enemy can make you feel like throwing in the towel.
He gets you to the point where you don’t believe there are any alternatives to your situation. The enemy blinds your mind so you don’t have the faith for good news from Heaven to shine into your situation. When you feel there’s no hope that’s when thoughts of suicide, depression, anger and bitterness creep in. It’s the blindness to opportunities that cause you to feel disappointed in your life. Feeling like you’re trapped in a prison cell and this is the source of all the emotions many of us feel when we’re stuck. But you don’t have to stay stuck.
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