Living the Abundant Life When You Are In a Rut

Have you ever been in a rut in life, a depressing time? Are you in one now? Do you seem to be in the “groove” of your dull, unpromising life? Have you stopped looking because all you see is “dirt” all around you?

I wonder where are you looking? Where are your eyes fixed?

Psalm 119:18 is a prayer, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” This is a request for God to let you see beyond your depression and into His wonderful rule and way for your life.

Jesus had a possible “rut” experience before him at one point.

(Jesus) taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
Luke 18:31-33

The rut of Jesus’ life consisted of words like: delivered up to evil people, mocked, shamefully treated (some translations say scourged), spit on, flogged, and killed. Has your rut included all of those things?

Hebrews 12:4 says that in our difficulty, we have not had it so hard to the point of shedding our own blood. That thought doesn’t make it any easier to go through difficulty but it does gives us understanding. We understand we are not the only one in the rut!

What made Jesus get through the difficulty? What brought Jesus through the hard time, the depressing circumstance, the difficult cruelty?

He knew the rut was not the end. He added at the end of the horrible circumstance before him, “on the third day he will rise”.

We pray for God to open our eyes that we can see His plan. In His plan, 1 Peter 5:10, tells us “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

Your end is not the rut. You too will RISE. Your end is a future, bright hope of spending eternity with God in Heaven where there will be no more tears. suffering, pain, ruts, heartaches, or brokenness. Nothing that kills, steals, or destroys will be in the eternal land where Jesus is.

My friend, as you are living in the rut of depression, difficulty, and what seems to be a dull, unpromising life, ask God to open your eyes. Ask Him to help you to see the RISE you will experience after the rut. Ask Him to enable you to see the wonderful things He has written in His Word that display before you the bright hope and future He has planned for you.

I’ll share a story I heard of a swimmer, Florence Chadwick from the 1950s. Florence was a very experienced long-distance swimmer who had mastered swimming the English Channel both ways. As the story goes she had planned to swim from Catalina Island to the mainland of California. The day of the planned event came. The weather was chilly and foggy. It was so foggy, Florence had a difficult time keeping the boats accompanying her in view. Fourteen hours later after emotional and physical exhaustion, she stopped swimming and was taken out of the water. The shore could not be seen at the time, but less than a half of a mile later, the shore line was upon them. Florence made no excuse for her failure to finish. She merely declared, “I think if I could have seen the shore I would have made it.”

Are you there? Are you in the great fog of your rut? Are you in the life that seems so dull and unpromising. Let me encourage you with the following:

Ask God to open your eyes so you can see the wonderful things He has written in His word about your future. Asking Him to allow you to see the “shore” of your finish line.
Keep looking past your circumstances to the RISE God has for you.

It is when you see the “end goal” that you can keep going. Jesus didn’t stop with the rut in his life. He looked beyond to the “RISE”. He didn’t stop on the hard things, the difficulties, and the troubles. He looked beyond to the “RISE”.

Run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2