Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt
It’s easy to feel like your life is very repetitive. Sometimes we feel like we are in a rut because there is so much repetition in our life. Sometimes we need a change by bringing more diversity to our lives but, that does not mean that all repetition is bad. There are repetitions or routines in our life that help make our life healthy. But then there is the repetition of things such as unhealthy or addictive habits of various sorts, that shouldn’t even be a part of anyone’s daily life. And, there are some good habits we could work into our life that would greatly benefit our spirit, or mind and emotions, or our bodies. So when we feel like were in a rut, these are what we should examine—what’s good and what’s bad and what we should eliminate and what should we add! You’ll often find just making a couple of small changes will make you feel considerably better!
When thinking about making changes in one’s routine, most people are fairly quick to identify what they know is evil, bad, or not beneficial to their life. And then they often make a spontaneous decision out of guilt to abruptly eliminate that thing from their life. You’ll hear someone say, I’m eating too many sweets. I’m going to stop eating sugar. Or, I keep being seduced into looking at sexual materials and media. I’m going to cut that all out. Or, That’s it, I am done watching television! It wastes too much of my time. I understand that mentality. This person is saying, I am in a rut. I can’t seem to get a handle on this part of my life so I am ridding myself of it all together. The desire and intent may be good but few people follow through in executing these desperate declarations.
Jesus gave us some insight in how to get victory. First of all, when you feel powerless or defeated in stopping something that you know isn’t good and is contrary to God’s will for you, it’s called a stronghold. That’s worse than a rut. It means you need God’s power to break out of it! Jesus gave us power and authority over strongholds. As a Christian, you need to be aware of that! Praying is one thing but there are things God gave you spiritual authority over. You need to be aware that you have that authority and then you need to seek His grace to give you the spiritual strength to execute it and succeed! Once you understand this, identify what is evil, bad, or unprofitable and take authority over it. We are to rebuke and resist it in the name of Jesus. Trust me when I say this, if it’s unprofitable for your life, the devil wants it in your life. So we make these changes in God’s power and authority. We chase them out in His Jesus’ name each time they try to come back into our life.
Taking authority is a spiritual component necessary in making changes. You need to understand how evil strongholds work. In Matthew 12:43-45 Jesus reveals, “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before…” 
You are not possessed with evil spirits in you, but they are real and do work to come against you and present temptation to you. When you’ve continually yielded to them—sometimes for years or decades, they’ve won and become a stronghold in your life. When we try to eliminate strongholds or bad things from our life but don’t realize that it takes God’s grace and the authority of the name of Jesus to get them out, we often feel defeated. You need to use your authority but there is something else Jesus revealed that is critical. One of the keys to succeeding besides the name of Jesus and God’s grace to resist the devil, is to replace something bad with something good. If we don’t, we may stop doing some of the unprofitable things for a season, but then come back on the scene and bring other bad friends—more bad habits and strongholds.
So, the best way to break these strongholds and succeed is to pray this first before you attempt to start making theses changes. First begin to pray and ask God to give you godly desires. He will! Psalms 37:4 (NIV) says, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Pray for godly desires and God will give you the kinds of desires that you’ll want to become a part of your life and routine. They will bless you. Pray for this daily for a season!
Then again, take what you’ve identified as unprofitable in your life and talk to the Lord about it in prayer. Tell Him why you believe they are bad for you. And tell Him you’re sorry that you’ve let them become a part of your life. Then pray for His grace and strength to remove them. You’ll know when it’s time to begin making those changes when you feel a great desire to change and begin to loath what you know shouldn’t be in our life! That’s when you know you have the grace to succeed and that is the time to enter the starting gate of changing your routine. And finally, if what you eliminate tries to hang on through temptation, rebuke in in Jesus’ name every time that temptation comes. Finally, add the godly desires you’ve been praying for to your life as you eliminate the bad! Do all this and your life will take a glorious turn that will begin to make you glow before others! No more rut! You’ll be in the moment in God’s will and plan for the things He has planned for you!
Luke 10:19 (NKJV) “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you.”
In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt
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