Leaving the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, most American drivers are confounded by the double-lane round-abouts they encounter. Navigating these round-abouts is an almost immediate necessity to enter the expressways to move ahead with your trip. (Consider left-sided driving and changing lanes in busy airport traffic.) Some tourists say they go full-circle several times before they can get their bearings and make the exit.
Sometimes we approach life’s challenges with similar mental strongholds. We are trapped in our familiar ways of thinking. We are self-limiting in our potential solutions, unable to navigate a new approach.
A Bible example is the crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5. We are not told how long or how often he made a feeble attempt to be first into the pool after the angel stirred the waters. So many limitations were against him even before he tried, likely multiple times. The angel stirred the water at random intervals, and he had this condition for 38 years. His medical restrictions made his movements slower than slow – a certain recipe for failure.
Enter Jesus – with a new solution, a new method of approach. He didn’t talk a lot or explain. He told the man to get up and walk, and the man listened, obeyed, got up and walked! Thrown into the mix were the Jewish laws and traditions. It was the Sabbath – doing any work like carrying his mat was against the rules. Talk about going against the grain – but it worked. He was healed!
We need to rethink some of our dilemmas. We serve the Creator God. He has given us His word – a weapon created to dismantle mental strongholds. Ask Him to give you scripture to interject into your situation so Jesus can come on the scene! He changes things.
Nan Robertson
~Christ Fellowship