How to Get Unstuck in Life

Cameron Peedin

10.27.2024

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut, either spiritually, emotionally, or relationally? Do you feel like there is no momentum or forward motion going on in your life?

Maybe you feel stuck in your career or you’re stuck in a specific sin, you’re bored with your calling, your family, your friendships, etc.

We’re going to talk about this today and how to get unstuck and get back to living the life God intended us to live.

Our Inside Matters More Than Our Outside

Many of us look for things around us to change in order to feel better about our lives or situations we are facing.

As a society we concentrate more on the outward things rather than the inward things.

What needs to change is what’s inside you. What I mean by that, is a heart and mind change.

Jer. 17:9 (NLT)

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

There are changes on the inside of you that only God can change and that only He can do, but we play a part in all of it.

God is limitless in power and can do exceedingly more than we can ask or think.

Ephesians 3:19-20 (NLT)

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

When you think you’ve given God your wildest dreams, you haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of who He really is and His capability to work in your life.

Some of us are not living life to the fullest because we focus all of our attention on changing the environment around us – what we feel and see, and refuse to allow God to change us on the inside – what we think and meditate on.

What I see going on around me and my environment is proportionate to what’s going on inside of me. If my environment is chaotic and stressful, it’s because my insides are chaotic and stressful.

Also, if there is nothing going on inside of you, there tends to be nothing going on around you. Life will seem boring and unproductive.

When there’s nothing going on around us, we have the tendency to forcefully move things around us to get things moving on our own, when in reality, if we start changing things inside us, things around us will inevitably start to change outside.

What’s in you affects what’s around you.

If the word of God is nowhere near you or inside you and if the presence of God is not in you, you will not be effective to the environment around you and everything will seem to be chaotic and out of control.

There are people who let the storms of life get in them, and everything around them is chaotic and becomes a storm, or they create a storm out of nothing. Do you know people like that? Could it be you?

What’s in you becomes your environment.

The law of attraction. Birds of a feather flock together. You attract what you are on the inside. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

How do I fix this? First I have to go to my power source and let God renew me on a daily basis by His Word and His spirit and transform me into a new person by the way I think.

Rom. 12:2 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

There must be times of personal revival and refreshing in His presence on a regular basis. If you do not have that, you will have no change or momentum in your spiritual life and you will feel stuck.

Daily disciplines in your relationship with Him must be kept fresh and new; then everything around you will have a fresh new perspective and outcome.

Surrounding yourself with leaders and friendships that expand your horizon will give you a fresh perspective where their thoughts and perspectives challenge you. If you’re never challenged, you will never grow.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read” Charlie Jones

Implementing this into your life will constantly reset the parameters of your mind, pushing you forward to the newness of life and your fullest potential.

If you reset the parameters of your mind long enough, you will eventually reset the parameters of your life. Eventually, you will be able to do things that you never imagined you could do.

God Expects Fruitfulness

God is a God Who is always expanding, multiplying, building, and creating.

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Gen. 1:28 (NKJV)

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

John 15:5 (NLT)

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

God knows that you need things. There is nothing wrong with having things. You just don’t let things have you.

When things have you is when it becomes unbalanced. “Things” can not become your pursuit.

God should be your priority and your main pursuit in life. He will give you the things that you need as you pursue Him and the things you don’t need won’t really matter.

Those “things” could be a new career, solid relationships that sharpen you mentally and spiritually, a confidence in yourself that you’ve never had, etc.

There are times in your walk with God that you will be tested and tried.

To get the fruit that God wants from you, sometimes you will have to go through trials and tests from the Father in order to prune us.

These pruning times are no fun at all. If we do not allow God to prune us, we will remain stuck in the same old mindset, that same old offense, that same old addiction for the rest of our lives and nothing will change.

What God does to bless you will take you to the very edge sometimes of your will and patience.

If we pour the Word of God into our minds and constantly meditate on it, it has the potential to completely set us free from the stickiness of life.

There is a sacrifice that we have to make in obedience to God. We have to be obedient to what He is speaking to us. Sacrifice and obedience is hard at times. It is taking up your cross and bearing some pretty hard stuff at times.

Luke 14:27 (NLT)

And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

Luke 9:23-24 (NLT)

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. But in the end, there’s good work that you can look back on and say, “Look what God did in me.

God is a God of reward; it’s not just tests and trials.

Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

All life is choice-driven.

God is an “if then” God. “If you… then I’ll”. God responds when we do His will, hard or easy. We have to make the first step toward Him or step out of “the boat” per se, and He promises to meet us there.

God Inspects for Fruitfulness

John 15:1-2 (NLT)

I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

According to this verse you’re pruned if you do, pruned if you don’t. Either way, you’re getting pruned.

If you aren’t bearing fruit, He’ll cut you> And if you are bearing fruit, He’ll cut you even more so you can bear more fruit.

It’s never God’s will for you to be stuck in your life. It’s our choice to be stuck.

Parable of the 10 servants in Luke 19:11-26

God came to inspect the fruit of what had been given.

One had doubled it.

One had earned 5 to the 10.

One had nothing and buried the talent.

1st Servant:

Luke 19:17 (NLT)

Well done!’ the king exclaimed. “You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.”

Luke 16:12 (NLT)

And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

Whatever you do, serve to the best of your ability, even when it’s not your own. This way when God entrusts you with something of your own, the hard work you’ve done in a business or ministry that was someone else’s, you will reap in your own life.

Have or create good work ethics.

Faithfulness Is the Principle for Movement

It’s not a skill set, it’s not a personality profile, it’s not education, or achievements that God can work with in a person’s life. It’s faithfulness!

Faithfulness in little things is essential to being promoted into bigger things. Why? Because you can be trusted. If you cannot be faithful with little things, God cannot trust you with more.

If you can’t tithe off of $1000, why would he give you a million?

If you have a staff of 5 and don’t treat them right, why should God promote you with a fortune 500 company?

If you’re wanting to be a pastor of your own church one day but you’re not faithful to the church God has planted you, stirring up gossip and division, why would He trust you with your own congregation? What you sow, you will reap.

Galatians 6:7 (NLT)

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

God is looking at all these things before promotion. Can He trust you?

For some, people are praying for their ship to come in, and in the waiting won’t row that little boat God gave them.

Whatever you’ve been given to do, do it as unto Jesus.

Colossians 3:23 (AMP)

Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men

Your reward doesn’t come from people. Your reward comes from Heaven.

Eph. 6:8 (NLT)

Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do…

If you were to serve people as if they were the embodiment of Jesus Himself, how would you serve and treat them? I truly believe that it would change our church and society dramatically.

Jesus speaking:

Matthew 25:35-36 (NLT)

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

The greatest thing I can do is help another person’s dream come true.

Our Vision Statement:

Helping people become who God created them to be!

The characteristic of forward movement is concentrating on the betterment of others, rather than yourself.

You’re never stuck in life, you’re only stuck in your mind.

If there’s ever a time when you feel stuck in life, it’s a time when you quit learning. Always have the mindset of learning something new, whatever it may be. A new life skill, a new revelation of God, a new side hustle, a new hobby, etc.

When you quit challenging your mind, you will inevitably be stuck.

When you get into a state of mind of continuously doing the things that you know to do, things that got you where you are, you will be successful. And you will stay there or be promoted.

When you do not continue the things that got you where you are, or quit implementing godly character into your life that perhaps you had at the beginning, you become stale and stuck in your walk with Him and in life.

If there’s nothing fresh going on inside of you, there’s nothing fresh that’s going to be flowing from you.

You can’t run on the smoke of yesterday’s fire.

There’s a form of Godliness with no power.

2 Tim. 3:5 (NLT)

They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

We can speak truths about God’s Word, when in reality our personal well is running on empty.

Learn how to dig for yourself another well. 2 Tim. 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you…” Learn how to be a student again. Look for ways to fill your mind with good things that propel you into the direction you need to go in life and in God.

Your mind is the factory for change.

What happens in your mind happens in time. This may take a few weeks, months or even years. But changing the things that you put into your mind will gradually start to change your life in a dramatic way. Take one day at a time.

You can’t choose the thoughts that run through your head, but you can choose what you focus and meditate on.

Prov. 23:7 (NKJV)

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…

If I want to change my reality, I have to change my thought-life first. My thought-life directly affects my reality.

What are you thinking about?

When was the last time you put a new idea into your head and took time to actually think it out?

When was the last time you risked something on a new idea you had or came across? Are you open to new ideas, or are you stuck in the same old way of doing things?

Are you open to listening to different people, or do you only listen to your own ideas or the same people you’ve listened to?

Allow God to Dig and Fertilize Your Life

Parable of the fig tree:

Luke 13:6-8 (AMP)

Then He began telling them this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree that had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, but did not find any; 7 so he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground [depleting the soil and blocking the sunlight]?’ 8 But he replied to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, [just] one more year until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit after this, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

Reality speaking:

This tree is a taker, not a giver. This tree is sucking all my resources dry. It’s killing all of my crops because it’s sucking the nutrients dry. Cut it down and throw it out.

Mercy speaking:

Vs. 8 is God’s mercy: 8 “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”

Justice says you’re a taker. If someone else was in your position, they’d be doing more. They’d be doing better.

Mercy says there’s more things that need to happen in this person’s life that may have not happened yet. 8 But he replied to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, [just] one more year until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit after this, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

 

God’s next stage in your life is to make it unstable. The fig tree needed to be dug around and fertilized. It needed to be unstable for a bit.

Many of us have had a pretty stable cushy life. God needs to shake us up.

Hebrews 12:27 (NLT)

This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

The key to getting the tree healthy again is to create instability around it. When you cause instability, you cause the roots to become unstable and dig deeper to get solid again and go to a part of the earth that has not already been drained of its nutrients, so up through the roots and through the branches it can produce again.

The foot that used to be stable isn’t stable anymore. People aren’t stable who you used to depend on. Things that you used to do don’t seem like they’re working anymore and everywhere you look, God’s creating instability, to the point you have to depend on Him and Him alone.

Don’t be scared of this. This is called a deeper depth of the roots of your faith, and out of that will come a fruitfulness that your last season has never produced.

You know what fertilizer is? Animal dung. God says, I’m going to create instability and throw dung on you.

Philippians 3:8 (KJV)

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ

I count it all as fertilizer. God will take the (dung) of life and cause it to grow and mature you. There are things in life that the only way you will grow is if you go through some dung.

What does fertilizer do? It increases the potential of something it’s placed on.

Instability and unpleasant circumstances cause roots to grow and release a greater potential in your life, so that you create fruit again.

You are going to be unstuck in this situation in your life.

Action Points

1. Redefining the parameters of your mind and your thought life.
2. Examine your environment. Your environment is a reflection of who you are on the inside. Maybe it’s time for God to start a change on the inside of you to affect your environment around you.
3. Examine the fruitfulness of your life. Focus on what’s fruitful, and allow God to lope off unfruitful habits or relationships in your life.
4. Instability is not a bad thing. Allow God to dig around and fertilize you through the unstable circumstances you’re experiencing that will eventually produce the best possible potential of fruit in your life.