Have you ever found yourself cornered and didn’t know what to do? Maybe you were foolish and your bad choices caught up to you or maybe you were the victim of someone else’s heartlessness. You find yourself stuck, suffering and don’t see a way out. I know I’ve felt trapped before.
The year I graduated from high school I lost my driver’s license. I lost it because I was uninsured and in more than one car accident. The insurance companies for the other drivers wanted to recover damages from me that my insurance should have paid. I was led to believe that until I paid that money I couldn’t get my license back. My job was about 13 miles away. I couldn’t get there in a timely manner anymore and part of my job was to make local deliveries so I was let go. I now had a very large problem. I couldn’t pay down any debt without a job but I couldn’t get & keep a decent paying job because I couldn’t get there. My life sort of went on hold. This was the last straw and it seemed like within a few days, my whole life fell apart. I literally did not know what to do. None of the options in front of me were good ones. They were all bad…or so I thought.
Ben Stein
There is no sudden leap into the stratosphere. There is only advancing step by step, slowly and tortuously, up the pyramid towards your goals.
THE VERY NEXT STEP! If you find yourself in a situation like this, the very next step is a crucial one. The next step can mean the difference between going deeper into your situation or it could be the very first step toward the answer that you so desperately need. Think about it. This next move could be the defining moment that changes everything. My problem was that I sort of shut down and took on a victim mentality. Never mind that it was ALL my fault!
I actually stopped taking steps for a while. I was so polarized by the size and complexity of the situation I was in that I didn’t know what to do or what questions to ask. Don’t allow yourself to get to this point. Sometimes no action is the worst action. You can only effectively steer a moving vehicle. Even if it starts out going the wrong direction, it can only be corrected if it’s moving. You can’t give up.
WHERE IS GOD IN ALL OF THIS? Psalm 25:5 (NKJ) says “Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you I wait all the day“. Isaiah 48:17 (BBE) says “The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go”. I know that sometimes the pressures of life can act like blinders and all you see is the problem. Lift your eyes. God Himself has promised to lead you if you will listen. He will guide you “for your profit”. He doesn’t want you to suffer, He takes NO pleasure in it. He wants you to have peace. Sometimes when you’re right in the thick of the battle, it may seem like you have to take five steps before you’re close enough to even ask for help but that is not the truth. God says in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”. You will never be out of His reach. He says in Isaiah 59:1 (WEB) “Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; neither His ear heavy, that it can’t hear”. The separation is on our part. We fail to look to Him for help.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
THE BREAK THROUGH. Remember, I said I stopped moving forward. It took me a little while to start moving again. A few years later, through many wonderful events, too many to talk about here, I was able to get a good job and even get married, but I still didn’t have my license. I really wanted to get this fixed but still didn’t know how. I had however been praying about it a lot and asking specifically for wisdom to know what to do. One night while relaxing in the bathtub (Yes, God can deal with you anywhere) the Lord began to deal with my heart. I didn’t hear a voice or anything like that but a thought occurred to me just as clear as if I has spoken it myself. “Have you done everything you CAN do?” In a split second I could see that there was ONE thing that I COULD do. I could pay the re-instatement fee. I didn’t have the thousands of dollars it would take to clear the whole mess up, but I had the re-instatement fee. So I paid it. Why you may ask? Because it was the one thing I COULD do, so I did it trusting that God would make something out of it.
A few weeks later I received a call from a very nice lady who worked for the Secretary of State’s office in the state where I lived. She indicated that she had received a check from me and was wondering why. I explained my whole situation to her and about paying the re-instatement fee. She then began to give me a very detailed roadmap to fix my situation. She told me what forms I needed and where to get them. She told me what to do in each situation in order to get resolution. I thanked her and hung up the phone. I don’t remember today if I jumped around the room or not but I remember being “off the hook” excited. I was thanking God! To make a long story short, within two months I had my license and had about $7,000 of an $11,000 debt forgiven. God knew exactly who I needed to talk to. I am convinced to this day that it was a divine setup.
The thing I want you to remember is this. You are never more than one step away from the right direction. You are never more than one step away from help. I don’t care how dark it may appear where you are, God is not too far away! Let Him lead you. The very next step could be the first step toward the answer.
How can you move forward? Even if it seems like an insignificant step, what could you do? What example in your own life could you share to help others? Please join the conversation by leaving a comment.
