Stuck In A Rut

“How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” – Psalm 19:12-14. 

Humans are creatures of habit and can get attached to routines. While repeated patterns of doing things are essential, if put on autopilot, their effectiveness diminishes. Consider your spiritual life: Are you going through the motions, feeling like you were stuck in a rut? In Psalm 19, the Psalmist is telling us if we want to connect with God in an intimate way, communicate with Him through prayer. 

If you want to pray passionately, if you want a genuine concern for your holiness, if you want to pray from deep within the heart, if you want the opposite of a spiritual rut, knowing you are hearing God and He is hearing you, refrain from instantly asking God for something. The first 11 verses of Psalm 19 are focusing on hearing God, learning from God, and reflecting on what God has said in His word and nature.  

When you listen to God, then you know God is listening to you. If we never listen to what God has to say and we are simply talking over Him by only making requests, a real conversation with God is not happening. If you skip right to your needs without connecting with God personally, it is one-way communication.

If we never seek to hear His voice it’s no wonder we feel disconnected from God and stuck in a rut spiritually. Prayer is a conversation. God speaks and listens to us, and He expects us to do the same. When we connect with God, God can lift us out of any spiritual rut.

Ruts often occur because we default to thinking that God is big, and therefore removed, distant, and has better things to do than care about our daily anxieties. Yes, I know He “cares” about me. He cares about everyone. But right now I feel like there is a chasm between God and me and as a result, prayer seems futile. The beauty of God’s love is that it survives spiritual ruts. The most faithful and happiest Christians in history have experienced spiritual ruts. 

Diligently seeking God is the only way to get out of a religious rut. He will help you see things differently and give you a new attitude that is refreshing and attractive. People will gravitate to you hoping a little of your enthusiasm and positive mindset for God will rub off on them. Times with God will be exciting and stimulating as you make conscious decisions to learn from Him in every encounter.

Spend time in prayer each day with your Heavenly Father and watch the rut disappear.

Discussion Questions:

1. What constitutes being in a spiritual rut in your mind? 
2. Do you feel spiritually stuck in a rut, stagnant, going through the motions, too comfortable? How did you move past it?
3. What can you do this week to move out of a spiritual rut?