What Might Happen If You Trust God Here?

0:19 Before we go any further, I want you to take a deep, steady breath. We've been walking together for five weeks now. And if you've been with me since the beginning of this unstuck series, you know this wasn't just a series about feeling better. It was a rescue mission for your life. So if you've been here since episode five, you have done more than just listen. You have examined your own patterns. You've wrestled with your thoughts. Maybe you've even confronted places where you've been stuck longer than you wanted to admit.

0:59 This series was never about hype or temporary motivation. It has been about honesty. And honesty often feels uncomfortable before it feels freeing. We started by asking the diagnostic question. We asked, are you living in your head or in your life? We looked at the roots of what might be keeping you there and sat with that strange. We called it the Tuesday morning after the leap. We sat with that. That strange place where the adrenaline fades and real obedience begins. And last week, we talked about not needing the whole map, just the lamp to help illuminate and guide your next step.

1:46 But today is the so what? Today is where the rubber meets the road. Hey, I'm Melissa, and welcome to my question for you. This is a devotional podcast where we slow down and draw close to God one question at a time. And today my question for you is this. What might happen if you trust God here? And what are you going to do with the floor God just gave you? I want you to really think about that for a second. We spend so much time asking God to take the ceiling off our lives, but he is asking, what are you going to do now that he's put solid ground under your feet?

2:38 You've prayed for clarity. You've asked for direction. You've asked God to stabilize things. The question now is not whether he is answered. The question is whether you are going to move on what he's already made stable in your life. I want to take you to a story in Acts 3. It's a fresh story for us, but I think you're going to find that it feels very familiar. There's a man who's been stuck literally his entire life.

3:21 He has been lame since birth, and every single day for years, he's carried to a gate called the Beautiful to beg. Let's. Let's just pause on the irony of that for a second. He was stuck at a gate called Beautiful. Sometimes our ruts are beautiful. They are comfortable. They're predictable. You can be stuck in a beautiful job that you hate or a Beautiful routine or a beautiful relationship that has no life left in looks acceptable from the outside.

4:03 And that means that makes it even easier to stay there, right? Even though it doesn't make sense, sometimes we stay and we linger longer than we know we should. Well, this man was not looking for a miracle anymore. He was looking for coins to help him just survive the day. He had been there so long that he had just accepted where he was and wasn't even looking for a way out. At some point, disappointment shrinks our expectations. You stop asking for transformation and you just start asking for maintenance. Just let me get by. You have a tendency to adjust to what hurts.

4:47 Sometimes. Sometimes we can build a rhythm around limitation. We can convince ourselves that surviving is the same thing as living. That is what long term stuckness can do to you. It slowly teaches you to lower your hope and your expectations. So when Peter and John walk by this man, he does what he's always done. He begs. But Peter stops. He does not just toss a coin like the man might have been expecting or hoping that he would. Instead, he says, look at us.

5:30 That is the first step of getting unstuck. It is the look at us moment. It's God interrupting the identity you have grown used to and calling you back to who you actually are. It's the moment when you realize that you have accepted a beggar's position in an area where you were meant to stand as a child of God. So Peter says, silver and gold I do not have. But what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

6:14 Here's the part I want to settle deep in your spirit. The Bible says Peter took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And as he was being lifted, his feet and ankles received strength. Did you catch that? The strength did not come while he was sitting on the ground. It met him in the motion of standing up. That means the miracle did not start in his muscles. It started in his decision. He had to shift his weight. He had to respond to the hand extended toward him.

6:57 And he had to move before he felt ready. And as he moved, strength met him there. For those of you who are new to faith, or maybe you have known God your whole life, we all make the same mistake. We wait to feel strong before we feel like we can move and take that step. We wait for confidence. We wait for certainty. We wait for the emotional surgeon that tells us we are ready. But in the kingdom of God, strength is often discovered in obedience. And not before that.

7:37 Not before it we talk about that all the time. The strength comes in actually making the move, deciding to move forward. In episode six of this series, we talked about double mindedness, that internal tug of war. This man had to decide whether he wanted the safety of his familiar spot at the gate or if he wanted the risk of taking a stranger's hand. He could have pulled back. He didn't have to take Peter's hand. He could have reasoned himself out of it. And he could have chosen the known discomfort over the unknown possibility.

8:23 James, chapter one, verse 22 tells us, do not merely listen to the word, do what it says. If this man had believed Peter could heal him but stayed sitting, he would still be a beggar at a beautiful gate. Belief alone would not have changed his condition. Movement is what changed it. As we close this series, I want the energy in your spirit to be palpable, but I also want it to be grounded. This is not about hype, it's about action.

9:06 Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 tells us to throw off everything that hinders and run with perseverance. You cannot run if you are still narrating your problems from the sidewalk. You cannot run if you insist on staying seated while God is asking for momentum. Before you answer this week's question out loud, I want you to answer it honestly to yourself. What if the gate you have been sitting at, what is that? What is that gate?

9:47 Where are you stuck? Where have you convinced yourself that coins are enough? When God has already offered you legs, when God is offering you so much more? Where are you settling? Where have you. Where have you adjusted to something that God might be inviting you to rise from? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it? If you have been thinking about that dream since we started this series way back in episode five, stop thinking and start doing.

10:27 If you have been praying about forgiving that person, stop rehearsing what you're going to say in your mind and just start making the phone call. Have the difficult conversation. And if you've been asking God for courage, just start with one small act of obedience that requires it. Faith is not a thought. It is not a feeling. It is a step. The man at the gate did not just walk. He went from walking to leaping to praising God. That transformation did not happen while he was analyzing his situation, wondering what he should do, expecting to receive a coin instead of a hand up.

11:18 It happened because he responded to the hand that was extended toward him. Well, this is the end of our unstuck series, but I really do hope that it is just the beginning of your movement. Do not let this be just another podcast that you listen to while you are folding laundry or driving in the car. And maybe you heard part of it, but not all of it, and maybe it didn't quite sink in. I really do hope you will let this be the moment that you reach for the hand that has already been extended toward you.

12:04 Let this be the day that you stop asking whether God is going to do something and start asking whether you are going to respond to what he has already done. The promise still stands, the floor is still solid, and you are not suspended in uncertainty the way that you think you are. God has already stabilized more than you have noticed, more than you can imagine. Now the question is, what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do in this moment? Moment? I hope that you will go walk.

12:45 I hope that you will go leap. And more than anything, I hope that you will go live, go forward. Thank you for trusting me with your journey. Thank you for sticking with me through this unstuck series. And I really do hope that it has left you with some encouragement for your spirit and wisdom for your walk and that you will take that step that you know you've been needing to take. Before you go. If today's question stayed with you, I'd love to keep the conversation going.

13:26 Each week I send a short email called this Week's A Quiet Invitation, and it's a simple reflection to help you stay grounded, to pay attention, to dive deeper into God's word, and to walk with God throughout your week. You can sign up at my question for you.com bringing you encouragement for your spirit and wisdom for your walk. It.