Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jennie Allen is the founder and visionary of IF:Gathering as well as the New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head, Made for This, Anything, and Nothing to Prove. A frequent speaker at national events and conferences, she is a passionate leader, following God's call on her life to catalyze a generation to live what they believe. Jennie earned a master's in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Zac, have four children.

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stuck study

Thomas Nelson

Contents

introduction......................................6instructions and expectations.....................8getting started :: stuck..........................13lesson one :: broken..............................19projects..........................................30lesson two :: mad.................................37projects..........................................50lesson three :: discontent........................55projects..........................................64lesson four :: scared.............................71projects..........................................84lesson five :: overwhelmed........................91projects..........................................102lesson six :: sad.................................109projects..........................................118lesson seven :: unstuck...........................123projects..........................................132about the author..................................137acknowledgments...................................139sources...........................................141

Chapter One

Universe Problems

I looked around my living room into the eyes of twelve young women. Twelve successful, beautiful women who previously had not felt very safe or comfortable in church or Bible study. They were the kind of sinners who were looked down upon by the "good sinners" (sinners who had better-hidden or more socially acceptable sin) and they knew it or felt it enough to stay away. They lived fast, and yet here they were, hungry for God—hungrier than most "good sinners" I knew. They desperately wanted God, and His offer of unconditional love and forgiveness felt dangerously comforting. For the past few weeks we had studied together, they had been just relaxing into that ... relaxing into grace. As time passed they were feeling a little convicted about sleeping around and partying. Not much about their visible lives was changing, though all of their invisible lives were.

The last thing I wanted to do was get legalistic with these girls, so I prayed, "God, how do I address sin without taking away from Your grace?"

He led me to Romans 8.

This chapter describes two ways to live. One way is to know God, to be His, to be filled with His Spirit and to enjoy life and peace. The other way is to be enslaved to our flesh, constantly pleasing it, and ultimately feeling sin and death in it all ... the waste. As I read these verses, I knew these girls in my living room weren't the only ones who needed help. I needed to be broken over my sin, perhaps more than they did. Their eyes drank in every word, and as I watched them long for God, I found myself more worried about my hidden sins than their blatant ones.

See, they knew they needed God. Did I?

We categorize our sin in a grand gesture to feel better about ourselves, better about our lives, when God couldn't care less what particular sin we love. He wants us to see we sin. He wants us to see we are all helpless without Him. And He wants us to sit with hungry eyes, drinking in His grace. But most of us think that we have enough God. We've heard it already ... heaven and Jesus and forever. We spend more time scrutinizing truth than living it. We get numb and bored. We forget that it is all real. It is all real.

See, when we step into faith with Him, God shatters everything, not just our Saturday night plans. He changes every relationship, how we spend our time, our motives, our passions, how we live and how we die. He strips us of performing and pretending and lays us bare, fully aware of our need for Him. While it is costly and even threatening, it is what we were designed for.

study ::

read romans 8:1-17

In the space below, describe the two sides of the war from Romans 8:1-17. Describe the war: the characteristics of those who follow the Spirit of God versus those who live according to their flesh.

led by the Spirit led by the flesh _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

The struggle between the Spirit of God and evil has been warring since before God spun the planets. This is the universal problem: the Spirit of life and peace versus the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:8 says, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." It is impossible to please God without the Spirit of God Himself being present in us and without the blood of Christ erasing our sin.

Two drums are beating. We are each born with the drum of our flesh that beats steadily and selfishly, begging for us to meet its every desire. The sound of this drum beats, telling me to get what I need, build my comfortable life, make a name for myself. It is a drum that beats until we die, unless we are given a different drum, a new drum giving life and peace. The new drum has a purpose and overcomes the selfish drum of our flesh. It beats with God's heart. The new drum can overcome the old one, but the old drum must die.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on [Christ] the iniquity of us all.

isaiah 53:6

I was designed to come to the end of myself again and again and again and again, to slip down the rungs of my ladder, until maybe, after years of reaching the end of me, I would consider that I had a problem ... that I might need something ... that I might be stuck.

I might need help.

I might need God.

This feeling is not a Christian problem or a pagan problem, a young or an old problem, a rich or a poor problem, or a married or a single problem. It is a human problem. People feel stuck.

Measuring Sticks

God in His goodness supplied our universal need for a Savior. Before time began He knew people would rebel and run from Him, and He made a way to get them back in Christ. In Christ's death I found grace. Grace to be a sinner. Grace to not measure up. Grace for people around me to disappoint me. Grace for my kids and my husband to be human.

It is important we understand the reason why we can be imperfect. We don't have to try to measure up or pretend because God rescued us from that impossible pursuit through the blood of Christ.

Those of us who have been rescued by God have nothing to prove. We can call sin what it is because our sin has been paid for, cared for. We rest in who we are and what God has accomplished for us.

We can even boast in our weakness, because our weakness shows our need for God even more. Grace frees me from having to measure up to the impossible standard, while at the same time, grace motivates me to run from sin and obey God.

Not long ago I gave a talk in which I shared about some struggles I was having with fear and disobedience. A woman approached me afterward and said, "It must be difficult to share all of this." I thought for a moment and shook my head and said, "I am so aware I am no good apart from my God that it actually comes out pretty painlessly. I am forgiven. I don't feel ashamed of the places I need God."

Shame has paralyzed us. We are afraid to come out of hiding and admit we are flawed. It is ridiculous because we are all flawed. God knows it and we know it. Why are we pretending?

If we trust in Christ, we are...