Productivity in the Pit

Beloved of God,

If you feel like you are in a pit today, there are ways to start climbing:

1) Keep your eyes on God.  He's not just the light at the top. He's the ladder that makes the climb easier.  Place your feet where He has already put a step. 

Look for the areas He is working and make sure that's where YOU are.

Trust that He is working around corners we have yet to turn. He is working for your good, even if it doesn't feel that way in THIS moment, or a string of many.  Honestly, it's none of our business what He's doing. That is God-sized work of which we are incapable of seeing the whole tapestry anyway.  Rest in the fact you don't have to.

Know that He is in each moment waiting to receive you. 

Your problems aren't bigger than Him and there is no problem too small or too petty.  It all matters to Him because it matters to you.

2) Break patterns. If what you're doing isn't working, DO SOMETHING ELSE.

Troubles with money? Budget and spend less! Too much on your plate? Learn the value of NO!  Feel unloved? Show up to small group and get loved on!  If you are a problem finder, be a problem solver! What is your opposite?

Forgive even if you think it's unforgivable.  Jesus didn't draw an uncrossable line for US, so why would we deny someone else the forgiveness of the cross? (NOTE:  This doesn't mean stepping back into patterns of abuse. The forgiveness is for the healing of YOUR spirit. Stay safe, beloved, and be filled with wise discernment.)

Check your expectations. If someone isn't speaking or acting out YOUR language of love at least find out if they are expressing THEIRS. We all need time to learn a foreign language.

Is what you're doing an exercise in perseverance or futility? Pursue the actions that bear good fruit.

3) Serve others

Even when you don’t feel like you have anything left for yourself, there is SOMEthing you can do for someone else.  It reminds you you can be MORE than your problems, that they don't define you and that you still have something VALUABLE to contribute.  Take part in a blessing.

4) Make sure your team is in place.

Do not isolate! Your team, from two to many, are there for prayer, for accountability and counsel, to lend knowledge and expertise,  to cry with and be comforted by, to cheer you on, for love, for rest, as a place to renew, for extra hands and feet and for continuing education. 

5) Be willing to be vulnerable.

Find someone or a group you trust and TELL. It takes a great amount of courage to be in a position to receive prayer, provision and encouragement.  Beloved, BE OF COURAGE TODAY.

May God bless you and keep you...