Trapped

Has your lifestyle and choices caused you to be trapped? This may prevent you from being open to do and have a better way. You could be finding yourself behind the wall that you built. Or you could be living behind a wall where other people put you as a child. Still, some people may have had so much influence in your life that you are trapped. Be honest. Examine how you could be trapped even without knowing it until this moment.

The self-talk that you have performed could be a means to withdraw from relationships, including that of one with God. You might be telling yourself that you can’t which really means you won’t. You might have convinced yourself that your situation has an impossible solution. There could be people in your life that have been contributing toward this isolation. If this is the case, these people are living your life for you.

If you consider yourself a religious person, to what extent does your religion contribute to you having an experience with Christ? Religion has no value if it’s a matter of ritual or following what other people say. Jesus was the opponent of pure religion. In his day, there was a hierarchy of religious leaders that only sought to better their situation in life including prestige and money. You may be trapped by being a religious person that has no eternal value for yourself.

The decisions that you make routinely could be for the sole purpose of reinforcing your “stuckness.” It is not a matter of deciding to have a better life. Instead, it might be you decide not to decide to have an experience with God that has meaning. Such a meaning also comes with responsibilities. By being trapped in your life, this might mean that you are avoiding responsibility.

If you’re not a Christian but have been confronted by Christian witnesses, the first thing is you could’ve done was to reject them as part of your being trapped in your own lifestyle and not open to what Christians have to say about Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected for us. It does you no good to simply say that Your Way outside of Christ is the way it should be!

Perhaps years ago, you made faulty choices that lead you to a place in which you have convinced yourself you cannot make any changes. You became a victim of your own self and your own choices. You might’ve followed this path to depression and anxiety. With this point of view, you have made it impossible for you to break out of the trap; to create a healthier life.

Maybe you are a people pleaser. You might be in the trap that tells you that it is impossible to be happy if you don’t please other people. If this is your case, you have surrendered your own self-identity. You have allowed other people to define who you are. Their goals, their ideas, their attitudes are yours. If you try to break out of this trap, it could be frightening because you must assume the responsibility to become the person God wants you to be when you been trying to avoid it all along.

There is a difference between taking into account what other people tell you versus how you evaluate their input according to common sense and the Bible. Oh, you say, you’re not so interested in the Bible! If this is the case, on what final authority have you built your life?  It could be your own opinion. It could be philosophical books. It could be what you have decided over the years, but all of those things can change. We all need a final authority that’s final. We need a final authority that’s not fluid. We need a final authority on which we can build our lives. History, science, archaeology have all proven that the Bible is the most reliable final authority there is.