Seeing Stagnancy In A New Light

“My life is so stagnant. Nothing great is happening. I don’t seem to have much testimonies these days. Everything is just the same old routines.” Stagnancy in life takes up a large part of our living. I mean, life is not always a rollercoaster ride throughout. There will be intermittent or even long periods of “stillness”. Like running through the same schedule, seemingly without much changes or challenges around us. We could be in the same environment, with the same group of people and same set of conditions for a long while. While it is not necessarily a bad thing, but by human nature and when not guarded, it is easy to lament, get bored or feel jaded with the life God has currently put us in. This might then overflow into possibilities of dissatisfaction with the people around us, being negative with our words and actions, gradually developing a defiant spirit or even spilling onto a distance between our relationship with God— when we do not see the purpose and value of stagnancy. It is easier to look to, to need and rely on God when we have some kind of trials we are going through or when we have some great changes happening to give thanks for. But when life is stagnant, it feels like we have lesser conviction or motivation to draw close to God or to even pray. Like “Aren’t I just praying the same thing again? Why does it feel like I have to squeeze something out to pray about?” Now, if you are in this season, my brothers and sisters, you must first know that the Lord empathises with our struggles of stagnancy. He knows the depths of our heart and there is always answers in Him when we look to the right source. So before we continue to let our stagnancy overwhelm us, let us turn to a blessed perspective today.

The Beauty Of Stagnancy

Now of course, stagnancy, in the worldly context, may come with a negative connotation where someone is not motivated or not willing to move forward to do more with their life, and things like that. So it is important to know the type of stagnancy we are in. To be honest, we can be stagnant in our worldly roles at certain phases of life because it is required. Like parenting roles, serving roles, when at work or studying. It is required due to the needs that God has planned for us to learn, to grow, to experience and to meet the needs of those He has placed in our lives. So stagnancy in different seasons are needed. Also, stagnancy could mean that we are more consistent and stable in different areas of our lives. The Lord has brought us to a point where we have a know-how to deal with the fields we are in— like how to work with our superior or colleagues or the way we plan to spend time with family. But this does not stop here because if it does, we will grow complacent or even prideful about how we are capable to handle things well. So we must test and approve the beauty of our God-given stagnancy in life now.

Firstly, we must see this stagnancy may allow us to focus or go deeper into our relationship with God and our learning of His word. When we are more consistent in other areas of our lives, we may be less distracted and more one-hearted or sober-minded to build our foundation in Christ. So take time to be an even stronger learner of Christ, understanding what pleases Him and what does not, introspecting and imitating His likeness in our different situations. As Luke 6:40 says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”

Secondly, when we are stagnant, we could also have the capacity to move away from ourselves and look outwards to others around us who are “not in stagnancy” and requires our help. By this, I mean those who are on their own rollercoaster ride of emotions or problems. Like a troubled brethren, a stressed out colleague, an unwell relative or even our wilful child. We may not be laden with any big issues of our own but that is the time we can give more undivided and level-headed attention or prayers for the people God has placed around us. As Acts 20:35 says, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”As you continue to do so, you will start to see the heavy spirit of stagnancy lifted from you because of the joy of helping someone meet God and really participating in the true purpose of God’s calling. So instead of lamenting about how our life is not vibrant, let us give thanks to the Lord for this consistency, and use the time and energy we have to bless others.

Be Wary of Spiritual Stagnation.

Now above, we have talked about stagnancy in our worldly roles and how God may use them. However, we must still be wary of spiritual stagnation. We can not be moving much in our worldly roles, but our spiritual living should not be stagnant because everything we do flows from it. Now, spiritual stagnation is where we may start to grow cold, indifferent or not convicted by God’s word or leading. It could stem from our own pride that we start to feel we can be self sufficient or it could be that we have been passive about our spiritual growth for some time. So let us ask ourselves if we fall into either of these categories. If so, it will result in numbness and frustration towards God.

The truth is, our spiritual living is not all our own works, neither do we just leave it all for God to settle while we take a back seat. It requires us to coming before Him, submitting to Him and intentionally participating in His plans. As Philippians 2:12-13 says “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We need to move forward with the strength that God provides, anchored on the truth. Now we can see this in Nehemiah’s case. He was leading God’s people to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and was also anticipating being attacked. But what did he do? In Nehemiah 4:9 it says, “And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.” He prayed and set a guard. He look to the Lord and acted on God’s conviction to prepare a guard.

So brothers and sisters, there is no room for spiritual stagnation when we actively seek the Lord’s face, find time to immerse ourselves in God’s voice and apply it to our lives. Our spirit will not stay stagnant because the Lord is always convicting and guiding us to keep moving ahead in this blessed race He has set us in. May we renew our spiritual pursuit for God as we live out our roles in this world. God bless.