Have you ever felt Stuck in life? I have often felt trapped in the humdrum routine of daily life. I know God has work for me to do, but often I felt like I was spinning my wheels. Deep inside I longed to know the secret of unlocking God’s call for my life.
At the age of 17, I had a passion for missionary work, serving others, and teaching others about Jesus. After completing my studies at Roane State, I responded to my calling for ministry and set off to attend Bible College in Louisville. I was full of zeal and enthusiasm- eager to dive into theology, bible study, and grow in prayer. I had grand aspirations for my future, and it was all going to be epic and exciting!
However, I soon found myself stuck serving food in the seminary cafeteria. This was not the kind of “feeding” people I had envisioned for my life. I had to be on the job by 5:30 am. Let me ask you, “Have you ever attempted to pray on your knees before dawn? I would often doze off and fall over. My heart was crying out, “God, when will I move on from this boring season and get to the exciting work? I felt trapped and frustrated.
Maybe you feel stuck today?
Perhaps you get up and go to work every day hating your life. It could be because it’s boring, or it’s hard labor, or maybe it’s so easy it’s just killing you. Maybe it’s something that you never saw yourself doing and you had other dreams and aspirations, but here you are…feeling stuck.
When I talk to people who are stuck, I often hear these types of comments:
- Well, what can you do?
- That’s just how it is.
- It’s just my lot in life.
- I’m too old to go back to school.
- I’m too young to do anything that big.
- My past and my mistakes really ruined my whole future.
- I just feel so stuck.
So I want to ask you today: “Is that really all there is to life?” Has God just assigned us to a bland existence in life where we struggle to simply make money, retire, and die… or is there more?
God’s word tells us what to do when our souls feel stuck. He shows us this through the prophet Elisha.
We are starting by looking at the Prophet Elijah! Now Elijah was the man! He was a famous prophet! He was the powerful, not to be trifled with- called fire from heaven guy, that guy, people knew his name near and far. This cat and God are tight and he’s like a spiritual celebrity if you would. God has pressed upon him the importance of disciple-making. Like we all need to be pouring into someone who can carry on the faith. Carry on the ministry. Life on life- Jesus’ style ministry. So today we see Elijah looking for his young padawan whom he will mentor.
1 Kings 19: 19-21 NLT
19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yokes of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” 21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.
1. Listen For God’s Voice in the Middle of the Mundane
God is speaking. He is always speaking. He is with you wherever you are and he is speaking and guiding, the question is will we calm down long enough to listen? Will we slow down long enough to get in tune with him? Or will we stay stuck on the treadmill of the mundane?
Elisha was stuck.
His life wasn’t what he had dreamed it would be. His life was as boring and mundane as you can imagine. He spent every day plowing… staring at an oxen’s rear. Think about that! Every day- he was dealing with crap. A lot of crap. They had 12 pairs of oxen, that’s 24 oxen! That’s a lot of crap!
- It was muddy, sweaty, stinky, hard labor. It probably felt like a dead end. How do you climb the ladder from there right? He could work his way up to OX bather maybe? Lol
- (ok just laugh at the fact that I have never worked on a farm, and have no idea what I am about).
- Honestly, I would have struggled with this lot in life. Why couldn’t I have gone to rabbi school? Why couldn’t I have been an architect, a soldier, or even a fisherman? But an OX PLOWER. THIS IS TERRIBLE.
- Maybe somebody reading this today feels the same way? Maybe you are frustrated by the hand you have been dealt in life. Maybe you are angry with God and wish you could be somewhere else. Be someone else? Maybe you wish you could go back to school. Change careers? Start over? Or maybe you just feel trapped in the mundane- day-to-day- grind and you feel hopeless. Maybe you feel stuck.
- Even if you are stuck, God is speaking and calling you. Listening to his voice unlocks God’s call for your life. Are you listening?
God Calls Elisha
1 Kings 19: 19-20 NLT– …Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.
So Elijah comes up and throws his mantle around Elisha. Elisha didn’t have to ask, ‘What’s going on?’ He knew exactly what that meant. Mantles were typically made of animal hair and were generally worn by kings and prophets. They were symbolic of the owners calling, position, and authority. So Elisha didn’t have to ask Elijah what was going on. He knew. This was a passing of Elijah’s calling and position onto Elisha. God had chosen Elisha through his prophet Elijah.
- This was God calling Elisha to something greater. Now we often think of Greater as something big and flashy; we think of money, power, and fame- this had nothing to do with that, this was Greater in the sense of- being part of something greater than himself.
- Moving with the God of the universe, the creator, the sustainer, the savior, the heart fulfiller, the soul quencher, the peace giver. This was greater because of “who” he was following. (Not everyone is called to the same thing, some people are called to be Jesus-loving farmers)
It’s not about the task, it’s about obedience.
Greater is not an occupation, it’s a location- being right where God wants you. There is no greater place to be.
The call to greater is the call to walk with God, Himself.
2. Choose Purpose over Comfort
God’s greater calling happens in a moment. It’s a tug on the heart. It’s passion or a consuming thought that you can’t get out of your head. It is an opportunity… but also a crisis of Faith. It is uncomfortable.
- See it requires your willingness to follow a person, not a plan. (My moment was planting a church with no guaranteed salary)
- It requires surrender and release of control and expectations.
- It requires faith, and trusting God knows what he is doing.
- It requires cutting ties with anything negative in your past that holds you down, keeps you captive, or leads you away from Him.
- GREATER IS NOT EASIER. It’s much easier to stay stuck in comfort.
While that may scare you, don’t let fear win. If you struggle with this- read my article on fear here- Conquer Your Fears: 5 Strategies to Overcome Overwhelming Obstacles.
- One Pastor Said, “Many of us are not in as much danger of ruining our lives as we are of wasting them.”
We have the choice of answering the call or staying stuck in our comfort.
- Elisha had to make a choice. He wasn’t looking for a new path or a new trail to blaze, he was simply being faithful in his day-to-day grind. But God showed up and called him to something greater. Elisha could’ve stayed with his family in the family business but instead, he chose to follow Elijah.
Some people here are paralyzed by their past and are afraid to walk into God’s calling on their lives.
- When God calls us today, we must make a choice. We can stay where we are, we can live in spiritual status quo, we can stay stuck–
- we can allow our past to define us,
- we can convince ourselves that we aren’t qualified,
- we can believe that our mistakes make us unworthy,
- we can think that God has love and forgiveness for everyone- except ourselves (funny how that works),
- and we can just drudge along plowing behind an oxen’s rear day after day.
- Or we can say “YES LORD.” No conditions. No caveats. Just Yes Lord. We can choose to put the past behind us and the cross before us. You can decide that Jesus is going to be your priority.
Philippians 3:13– But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
- Paul, the one guy who seems to have it together admits he doesn’t have it together. He realizes there’s no use in beating yourself up. He simply says forgetting what is behind me. Paul understood that the past is a tricky thing. It can haunt us. It can crush us. It can paralyze us. OR it can teach us. It can remind us of where we came from and not to go back there. It can be a milestone if we put it down and leave it there.
Yesterday is heavy…put it down.
- And lastly… once we choose to answer God’s calling to something greater- then WE GO ALL IN!!!!
3. Burn Down Anything that is Holding you Back
1 Kings 19:21 NLT
21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.
- Elisha made a choice- to let go of his own life and plans, to trust God, walk into his calling, and BURNED his plow so he would never be tempted to go back. He was all in.
- At some point in life it is good to reflect on how our past has impacted us, changed us, and affected us- for good or bad. But once we do- we reckon with it. We learn from it. And then we let it go, and WE BURN THE PLOWS!
- There is someone in here today who has been letting your past control you and weigh you down, and it’s time for you to burn your blows! Amen! Time for a plow-burning party! Who’s with me?!
- Elisha was putting himself at the mercy of God. I am yours. Whatever, wherever, whenever. To us, this sounds scary, but in reality, this is the best and most fulfilling place to be.
- This is when we get out of the boat we get to walk on water,
- This is when the servants at the wedding dipped the cups in the water and pulled out Wine- they saw the miracle- because they were there, present, obedient, following Jesus.
- It’s in the fire, that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego learned that God is greater than the fire.
- It was when I didn’t have a pot to pee in, working two jobs, going to school full time, and was married with a kid making $16,000 a year- it was in that low valley- that God flexed his muscles and showed me what he can do. He showed me his faithfulness.
- Today you don’t need to cling to your 401K, your retirement, your job status, your own skills and abilities, today you need to trust God.
WE don’t need to cling to our plows, we need to cling to our God. (Repeat)
So what are some plows that God wants you to burn today?
- Your past failures, sins, and mistakes.
- A past toxic relationship that keeps popping back up.
- A habit that almost destroyed you and keeps clawing its way back into your life?
- Spiritual beliefs that are unbiblical- like
- God is mad at you, couldn’t forgive you, or doesn’t love you.
- God isn’t really faithful.
- God doesn’t really care about the small things.
- God will only accept you when you are good enough.
- God’s love and grace aren’t as good as the bible says.
That kind of stinking thinking- can keep us in bondage to our past. We must change them by reading his word, learning about who he really is, and believing him
I challenge you to Trust God, Burn the plows, and go all-in to his calling!
*If you want to go deeper I recommend getting Steven Furtick’s book “Greater.”
Grab it here on Amazon- https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Bigger-Smaller-Ignite-Vision/dp/1601426550/ref=sr_1_2?crid=F0NEFTG8B5HT&keywords=greater+by+furtick&qid=1686062088&sprefix=greater+by+furtick%2Caps%2C89&sr=8-2