Rut Or Groove

Love you all, praying for you,

I just love God’s Word… sometimes.  Not always – just being honest.  Sometimes He says some uncomfortable things, that make you kind of nervous.  They are weighty.  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.  That’s always made me a little nervous, not gonna lie.  God help me.  I wanna have ears to hear.  Have you ever noticed that a good thing can become a bad thing.  Or a bad thing may have started out with good intention.  Take for example, a groove and a rut.  Both are rhythms, both are patterns, habits.  One leads to progress, the other leads to setback, a spinning of your wheels – going nowhere, lifeless, joyless.  Sometimes a grove can become a rut.  When the Spirit leaves, it becomes a rut.  The Israelites were steeped in sin, from the top down.  The wicked priests and leaders of the country led the way in sin.  God eventually had enough – When He brought destruction - Eli’s sons died, the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant in battle.  And the wife of Eli’s son, in childbirth, named him – Icabod “the glory has departed.”  That is definitely a place you do not want to be.  That’s how you know a groove has become a rut, when the glory has departed.  When grooves are led by the Holy Spirit – they are patterns that bring fruit in abundance!  But when our own natures take over - a striving for acceptance of God, when He just wants simple obedience, we make up more rules - while neglecting the most important thing.  Love Him more than anything else.  Or stiving for acceptance of men – rather than the praise of God.  When whatever you think you’re doing for a good cause – just becomes your cause – not His - it becomes a rut… fruitless, joyless.  But the opposite, is even truer.  When you know what God told you to do – today, and every day.  And you do it with joy.  Those patterns of success that He leads you in – become groves that bring effortless success – like Steph Curry on fire – draining threes like he’s on another level of consciousness.  That’s what your life is like, when the Holy Spirit is in control.  You never want to leave that groove – the basket is like an ocean – you can’t miss!  What happens if you’re in between?  Has God ever brought a rut to your attention, that you might not have even noticed, or ignored for too long?  Have you ever tried to leave a rut behind?  What you have done for so long – but is not bearing fruit?  It’s time to change things up.  And do something completely different – and at a different time.  Being delivered from a rut, and starting a new groove – is extremely difficult if you don’t have the resolve that you will need, and if you don’t choose the grace that He gives.  To escape a rut, you need to hear from God – a new pattern that He has for you.  The key is time.  Sometimes the best way to change your life – is to change the time.  Maybe He’ll tell you to get up an hour earlier.  Maybe He’ll tell you to use your lunch hour in a completely different way.  Maybe your evenings can no longer be squandered or wandered through – because God has got something new for you to do.  No rut is worth it, if God reveals it’s a rut.  And no effort no matter how large, is not worth it – if it gets you to the new groove He has for you.  Praying that when God speaks – you will hear him.  And then – that you will let nothing deter you from what He has told you.  Exchanging a rut, for God’s new groove – is like death to life.  It will be harder than you think, it will require more effort than you originally anticipated, it will take longer than a time or two, longer than a minute.  Do whatever it takes to take His steps – until they become a groove.  You’ll begin to take flight, and that rut will be a distant memory.  Praying that you’ll hear, whatever He tells you, so you can do what He tells you next. 
 
Love you all,
dad