Beaten Down But Time to Blossom

Hebrews 10:38,39

The devil strikes us with knock-down punches. Our fear would keep us down but faith in God causes us to rise up and stay in the fight.

Soul Food

Hebrews 10.38,39

“’But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure

in the one who shrinks back.’ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Soul Search

• What assaults in life have you endured that have left you reeling and in some cases crumpled on the ground in a protective ball?
  Can you share about one of them?

• Have the assaults you’ve endured left you in a state of paralysis so that you feel like you can’t move or function healthily?
  Can you describe how you feel paralyzed or disabled?

• Sometimes getting up off the mat (and rejoining the human race) requires doing so in stages and moving only so quickly as your injuries and hurts will allow you to as they get healed.
  Have you made any moves to begin the process of getting up?
  If so, what are they?

• Are you tempted to remain ‘down’ in the fetal position because it feels safe there?
  Can you put into words why it’s hard to move to the place of standing up again?

Soul Moves

• Picture yourself unfolding from the protective, curled up ball you have been and rising up off the mat and living confidently and optimistically after your knock-down.
  Can you describe what you see as you begin to get up?

• Ask God to show you the spiritual realm and how you have someone (Satan) opposing you who wants to knock you out and knock you down and thereby render you useless for God’s service.

• Come to grips with your greatest fear(s) about moving from your protective ball on the mat to rising up on your own two feet to get back in the fight.
  Name those fears to God and ask Him to help you overcome those fears.

• Ask God to show you the small moves you can make to begin the healing process.
  Ask Him to show you who He has created you to be and what He has purposed for you to do.
  Allow God’s vision for you to empower and enable you to start living again in faith that His plans for you do not include you remaining down on the life’s mat in pain.