Are you stuck in a rut? Do you feel you are holding onto the same things and you are unable to let go and get into a new pattern and rhythm? Are you stuck with a problem in your life and you don’t know a new way of approaching it and solving it? We are creatures of habit and life is complex. Often when we have figured out how some things have worked for us, we persist in that and find it difficult to navigate to the next. Why rock the boat? Why get out of our comfort zone? Why try something new when the old is comfortable like a pair of old slippers? Well, we sometimes are unable to perceive a new way to do things and often even resist change but God wants to do a new thing in our life! He is always on the move and we need to keep in step with God. God knows new and creative ways of solving problems and getting us out of a rut.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah of the time when Judah was taken into captivity into Babylon. The people of Judah had persisted so long in walking in disobedience and walked away from the ways of God and God allowed His people to go into exile. They placated God with rituals and sacrifices which God hated. He wanted their hearts instead and a real relationship with them. God however remembers His covenant relationship with these people and He promises them that He will deliver them but in a new way! He reminds them of how He delivered them through the sea during their exodus from Egypt and He tells them that this time He will deliver them through the desert in a totally new way!
Isaiah 43:18-19
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
God is not predictable! You and I can get stuck but God never gets stuck. God is always consistent in His character but He works in new ways! In the story above with the nation of Judah, God knew how to deliver His people out of Babylon after a time of judgement and provide them with hope. This time, he was not going to use someone like a Moses but instead a pagan king like Cyrus to deliver them! God stirs up the heart of king Cyrus, a persian king who conquered Babylon to not only let go of his people but actually even appoint someone to build a temple for God in Jerusalem. These people in exile could not have predicted how God will even make a deliverance possible!
2 Chronicles 36: 22-23
22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: 23 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.’”
We don’t want to calcify and stop growing in extending ourselves and miss out on what God has for us. So we need to learn to anticipate and expect the new and unpredictable because God often works in new ways! We need to be so tuned into God that we are able to perceive the new and then walk in obedience and step into it! God knows the solutions to the problems you are struggling with. He can help you figure out a new way, set a new pattern and rhythm and break the mould! He is not limited for ideas and creativity and He wants to let you in on it. The onus is on us to invite him into our life and situation and hear from Him to break new ground. He wants to forge a new path, a new way and life is so adventurous when we live with expectancy and ask God everyday, “What’s next, Papa?”
Romans 8:15-16 (MSG)
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance!
To perceive the new and incredible, we need to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit in the sails of our spirit. We need to live heaven to earth and allow God’s spirit to touch us and our situations. We need God’s divine wisdom and strategy to break the mould, get out of the rut and solve things in new ways to break into the new and grow into maturity without compromising on God’s character and principles. Even our salvation through a suffering servant king in Jesus Christ is such a paradox and oxymoron that is such a new and radical way! We need the mind of Christ to live heaven to earth so that we are not conforming to the patterns of this world but instead living led by the Holy Spirit!
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Hope you are encouraged today to know that God has a clever, ingenious, “out of the box” solution to whatever you are facing! You don’t need to get stuck in a rut! God can make a new way when there seems to be no way. You can change and step into the new. Are you ready to catch the Holy Spirit in your sails and renew your thinking to hear and perceive from God? It’s time to live heaven to earth! It’s time to go on an adventure and ask “What’s next, Papa”?! God has incredible new things waiting for you to live a glorious life!
Designs for Glorious Living 
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