“Listen” to me with firm yet gentle love, as I teach myself the same. This is for those who want to stop blaming the perpetrator and past circumstances for what they have endured. This is for those who want to get beyond what caused them pain in their adversity. For those who seek purpose, to rise above the anguish, hurt, and trauma. To move beyond blame and excuses and towards life, hope, and a future. This is for those who want to use their adversity as a stepping-stone to overcome what has kept them entrapped for far too long.
Now is the time to rise out of the ashes and pull yourself from the very trauma caused by another, or caused by your own choices through addiction, alcoholism, failure, sin, and rise above it and decide:
“I’m not going to continue with my excuses any longer, allowing them to be the cause of my living in failure and hopelessness, and remaining in bondage to a life that says this is how it’s always going to be because this is how it’s always been…I don’t have to use these as an excuse any longer because I am the one who chooses how I proceed, not by my own power, but through the power of the Holy Ghost living inside of me, who is the author and finisher of my faith.”
Because your faith is not established on what’s happened to you. Your faith is not predicated on who has hurt you. Your faith is rooted in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who says we have all been given a measure of faith. So let us rise above the ashes and choose to serve the One True Living God: Jesus Christ, who has called us out of the ashes, and out of sin, to become a peculiar people used for His glory. We can then show those in the same circumstances that they, too, can rise above the ashes and become whole and victorious.
That they do not have to remain entangled in the sins and the deception that has been caused by years of bondage. Thank you, Jesus, for the truth that You provide and wholeness that You alone can bring in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
God alone can snatch us from the depths of sin and the entanglement of the affairs of this life, enabling us to become the person that He says we are in His Word.
Not who the perpetrator said we were or are. Not what they caused you or me through pain and trauma. Not through the mindsets and the strongholds that the enemy or you and I have allowed to take up residence within. But you and I must rise above all of this.
This is where the dilemma is for those of us who endeavor to help those caught up in the same circumstances. We are praying for discernment to help the ones who truly want to become unstuck.
We want to find those who truly want to rise above the ashes and not remain in their circumstances. Because it is easy to say you want better, but then far easier to live in: “But I like the situation because now I have an excuse to remain in my trauma or my brooding. I can remain in this life of easy excuses and deal with the aftermath.” The problem is you are not the only one enduring the aftermath; it is your loved ones and those around you enduring the aftermath with you, whether you see it or not.
Those excuses cause those wanting to help you to have to step back because it becomes wasted energy and effort. Be the one who says, “I’m fed up with living in this excuse and in this lifestyle,” and not the one who says, “I can’t ever make it.” Or “I can’t ever get ahead.”
We must change our perspective and change the way we view the past and the trauma. It does not matter who caused it, it does not matter how angry we are. We have to find a way to rise above these entanglements and forgive because forgiveness is part of the key to unlocking the prison doors.
It really is, unless one wants to continue to choose to remain stuck. If someone is not ready to come out of addiction and alcoholism and all the excuses that keep one bound and truly live a life sacrificially to the Lord, laying it at the altar every day… daily dying to self, then nothing will change. One must daily choose to lay their life on the altar, allowing God to step in and do what we cannot within our own limited power. We must choose our words wisely and start declaring, “I can do this. I don’t want this lifestyle anymore. It is not my strength, but God’s power within me.” Pray: “I need your power working within me, Lord, to help me break the chains, the cycle, the deception, and the strongholds, in Jesus name.”
Those are the people who will break the cycle, and if you are not that person, you might as well reevaluate your desires and motives to break free. No one can help the one who is willfully choosing to live in their dilemma. One must change their perspective and the words that they allow to proceed out of their mouth, even when their circumstances do not change right away.
God will break the chains if you are ready, but if you do not want to step beyond the excuses and keep living in presumptuous sin, saying, “I will ask for forgiveness later,” and afterwards, continuing the cycle repeatedly, then you will remain stuck. If you do not want to move beyond laziness and slothfulness, and do not want to move forward with the mindset:
"I am determined to put in the effort to overcome my challenges. I choose to go to rehabilitation or take the initiative to work for what I want and need.” This is a conscious decision to avoid being someone who drains the energy and efforts of others who truly want to help someone find the pathway into a life free from these bondages.
Understand, we all need help at times to overcome challenges and navigate difficult situations. Working through these things even in the middle of the mess is okay, because Jesus came while we were yet sinners. However, there comes a time when we must take responsibility for ourselves. We need to put on our "big girl" or "big boy" undergarments and declare, “I'm going to do this job. I can do this. It's time for me to stop relying on others to take care of it for me.” We all need help. This is not what this is about. We all need help; that’s why we are one body in Christ. We may need help financially, spiritually, emotionally, all the way through. That is not the concern. The concern is when one chooses not to participate in their own healing and path to freedom.
This is the dividing line between those who want to stay stuck, leaning on others to feed them hand and mouth and to provide the way to make life easy for them, while another carries the full load or the full weight of the burden. And that is not how this works.
If someone is going to become unstuck, they must diligently work to do it, and if that is not who you are and you want to remain in turmoil…tossed “to and from” then you might want to ask yourself if you really want to get unstuck…because this takes effort.
It is not hopeless, but it does take each day that you do your part, and it does not mean you have to be all in every day. If all you have is the energy to give 5%, then give your 5%, but give something so someone knows you are putting forth the effort towards your healing, your restoration, and your wholeness.
And one day you’ll look back, and you will be able to say, “I’ve made it. I can put in 100% now! I can now help others give their 5%, so they too can get unstuck and can eventually give their 100% percent.” It almost sounds like an MLM marketing scheme: “We help you achieve so you can reach others, pull them in, and they do the same.”
Except, it’s not marketing, and it is certainly not a scheme! It is foundational in being who God already says you are in His Word if you have chosen Him as Lord over your life! That is a choice.
Because the key is to make certain that we do not help someone stay stuck by enabling them. It is to show them how they can live a life untangled and Christ-like, so they can fully achieve this walk for themselves. Again, I must repeat, and this should go without repeating, but I must say it, this is not through our own strength but through the strength and power of the Holy Spirit living within us because God‘s power is made perfect in our weaknesses!
It’s possible, but one must be all in. It does not mean we will not fall! All of us fall, but we get up and learn from the fall. Learn that falling is not final, unless you fail to get back up!
Learn what caused the fall, so you can prepare ahead.
Learn! Learn! Learn!
Succeed! Succeed! Succeed!
So you can then:
Lead, Lead, Lead, all those in your proximity in similar circumstances!