We are not stuck!

This is powerful, really. I read a blurb Paul Tripp wrote about a new book by Tim Chester. In the blurb Paul said, "It's wonderful to be reminded that you and I are not stuck..." The book is about change as Paul goes on to describe. What arrested me was the phrase that we are "not stuck". I immediately remembered by previous post on this blog about being stuck, repeatedly getting in the way rather than being an instrument in the Redeemer's hands.

An hour later I was trying to sing a hymn my wife and I recently looked at together. This was while driving towards an office with a group of people who were very frustrated with some software I am trying to help them learn. A thought with the word "specific" passed through my mind, likely from the "Dynamics of Biblical Change" course we took from CCEF a couple of years ago. Still muttering the refrain from the hymn, "He is able, He is able, He is willing, doubt no more, " I stopped and asked Jesus specifically to help me not personalize their frustration with the software. I declared aloud that I was not going to doubt but to believe Jesus Christ in me to empower me to not personalize the feelings of others in the place I was headed. I was not stuck today, I moved ahead by God's grace. I did not personalize their anger towards the product but sympathized with their difficulty and prayed for wisdom to know how to help. Praise Him!

The lesson here, to me at least, is that it is way too vague to say I continue to get in the way so I'm stuck. The focus has to be much more intense, down to the level of specific temptation and struggle. In the context in which I spent my day today, I often get in the way because I personalize the complaints of others and end up angry and even more frustrated than they. And today, by God's grace, in this one specific sinful response, I asked Jesus Christ for help and He helped me in a very real way.