98. The Real Reason You're Stuck Spiritually (And How God Heals It)

Have you ever felt spiritually stuck—like you’re doing all the “right” things but still feel far from God? This episode is for you.

In today’s conversation, I share a deeply personal and biblical perspective on why we sometimes feel disconnected from God. It’s not always a lack of effort—it’s often a quiet rebellion: our tendency to trust everything but Him.

But here’s the beautiful truth—God doesn’t just correct rebellion. He heals it.

This is a vulnerable one, but it’s filled with so much hope.

 In This Episode, I Talk About:

• What “quiet rebellion” can look like in our everyday lives
• How fear, anxiety, and self-protection quietly block our trust
• Why God’s healing doesn’t wait for perfection—it begins in surrender
• My story of feeling lost and how God pursued me like the one sheep
• How to open your heart to God even when you feel overwhelmed or stuck

 Scriptures That Anchored Me:

• Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…”
• Hosea 14:4 – “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely…”
• Isaiah 57:17–18 – “I have seen their ways, but I will heal them…”
• Romans 5:8 – “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• 1 Peter 2:24 – “By His wounds, you have been healed.”
• Luke 15:4 – The parable of the lost sheep
• Psalm 107:17, 20 – “He sent out His word and healed them…”

 From My Heart to Yours:

You’re not alone if you’re having a hard time trusting God.

You’re not alone if you worry, feel anxious, or carry stress—even though you’ve prayed and longed to be close to Him.

I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to feel lost in your own faith.

But God doesn’t meet us with shame—He meets us with mercy.

He’s not waiting for you to fix yourself.

He wants to meet you in your stuck place and gently lead you into healing.

 Free Devotional: 

“And He Saved Them”

Want to go deeper after this episode?

I created a free devotional to help you reflect more deeply on today’s message. Inside you’ll find:

- Scriptures from the episode 

- Reflection + journaling questions 

- A guided prayer 

- Space to connect with God from exactly where you are

 Click here to download 

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going:

Come join the Curious for Christ Facebook community—a place where we talk honestly, ask big questions, and find real encouragement together.

Join here 

Final Thought:

You’re not too far. You’re not too broken.

God sees where your trust is wavering—and still, He chooses you.

He heals. He pursues. He restores.

Thanks for listening to Curious for Christ. I’m so glad you’re here.

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Want to go deeper? Let's connect—set up a FREE Discovery Call today. See you next time!

Transcript

0:01

Hi, friend. Welcome back to Curious for Christ, and for those who are new to the show, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Today's episode might stir something deep in you, and that's a good thing because we are going to talk about a word we don't always want to hear, and it's rebellion, not the loud, dramatic kind from movies, but the quiet, subtle rebellion that happens inside our hearts. When we resist fully trusting God. Maybe you feel distant from him. Maybe your faith feels stuck, like you're trying, learning, doing all the right things, but inside you're doubting if anything will ever really change. Maybe your prayers feel hollow or rushed. If that's you, this episode is for you. Here's a question to start us off. What if the distance you feel from God isn't just circumstantial, but a quiet rebellion you haven't named yet? The truth is to grow closer to God, we have to start by seeing ourselves clearly. We know the destination. We want peace, healing, intimacy with our creator, a purpose, clarity, confidence. All of those things, and they're not bad. But to get there, we have to start with ourselves. And sometimes what we see isn't pretty. So we avoid looking. But friend, the beauty of the gospel is this, God meets us there in our rebellion and offers not just forgiveness, but healing. So let's dig in. Welcome to Curious for Christ. Do you ever find yourself lying, awake at night wondering about God's plan for your life? Maybe you wake up with big dreams, but feel unsure where to start or what your next step should be. If you're curious about exploring your faith and finding purpose, then you've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Alexandra. I too felt lost and sure of the direction my life was taking. I yearned to understand my purpose and have someone guide me, but I kept telling myself I was too busy. The timing wasn't right, and my lack of clarity prevented me from being consistent until I found Christ. He brought peace into my life and revealed the way to find purpose by anchoring myself. In him. In this podcast, we'll journey together exploring the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of him and cultivate your own personal relationship with Christ. So open up your Bible, put in those earbuds and listen up because God is speaking to you. He's making everything new and you don't wanna miss it. Let's get started. Okay, so what is. Rebellion, really, let's start with this truth. When we don't fully trust God, we end up trusting something else, whether our plans, our fear, our trauma, our need for control, and that's misalignment. And the Bible calls it rebellion. Proverbs three, verse five says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but let's be real. When life gets painful, when prayers go unanswered or when fear creeps in. What do we do? We start leaning on ourselves. We take control, we rush, we avoid, we get impatient. We stop praying before making decisions. We dwell in our worry, even when God says, do not worry, and if we're not dealing with the hurt, that's in the way of trusting God. If we're not asking him to search our hearts and help us dig deeper, then what we're doing quietly, sadly, is. Rebelling, but here's the hope. God doesn't abandon us there. Which leads me to part two, God's promise to heal the rebellious. Listen to this promise in Isaiah 14 verse four. I will heal the waywardness and love them freely for my anger has turned away from them. Waywardness means turning from the path, wandering, straying, looking for fulfillment somewhere else, and yet God says I will heal that. I will love you freely. Then in Isaiah 57 verses 17 through 18, he says, I have seen their ways, but I will heal them. I will guide them and restore comfort. These verses bring me to tears because God doesn't just correct rebellion. He heals it. He says, I've seen it all, and I still choose to restore you. And if God already sees it all, we can stop hiding. Let yourself see it too. Let him show you where your heart is divided. And then look at how the New Testament builds on this healing. Romans five, verse eight says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And one Peter two, verse 24 says. By his wounds, you have been healed. God's heart is not to reject the rebellious, but to heal them. Because that's what we need emotionally, spiritually, relationally. His discipline is never punishment for punishment's sake. It's always redemptive. It's always out of love. So for our guilty souls out there, pay attention to this, God draws near to the wayward, to the overwhelmed, to the stubborn, and he says, come home. I want to restore you. Part three, To paint the picture clearly. Let me share a part of my personal story. I want to take you back more than 20 years ago. So just so you know, God has always been faithful to teach me, to guide me, and yes, to lovingly discipline me. And I've learned over time that his correction is not rejection, it's care. Proverbs three, verse 12 reminds me the Lord disciplines, those he loves. And I've learned to receive that truth, not with resistance, but with surrender. So 20 years ago when I was studying the Bible with a few women from my church, I was just beginning to study the Bible and I had so many questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What's the meaning of life? Is love real? Can I ever feel whole? Then one scripture found me. Luke 15 verse four. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? That verse wrecked me in the best way because for the first time. I saw myself clearly, I was the lost sheep, and that's not easy to admit, but it was true. Being lost means being disoriented, disconnected without grounding or direction. But suddenly, as I accepted that diagnosis, that wasn't too hopeful. The ache I had always felt. Made sense. My whole life made sense, the grieve, the losses, the confusion that I've felt for years. And then Grace met me because in this very verse where God tells me that I'm lost, he also says that he left a 99 to confine me. And he continues to search you until he finds you. And indeed he found me. He moved me across a continent, removed every false comfort, and met me in my vulnerability. I had lost my father. I had lost my mother years prior to that, and I was in a new country. I felt very vulnerable, but I was ready. I was ready to receive him His gift, I didn't know it at the time, but that was mercy. It was healing. That was the beginning of restoration for me. And why am I sharing this story? Because I want to give you hope. Yes, there's bad news. The truth is we are all lost in some way. We've all rebelled, wandered, resisted the very one who made us, but that hard truth that we need, restoration is always followed by something far greater, the comfort of God's presence. And that's what we long for, isn't it? Not just answers or quick fixes, but him, his nearness, his love, his peace, his healing, and he's the miracle. He not only wants to restore us, he can. He's willing and he's powerful. God sees straight through us. There's nothing hidden from his eyes. His understanding is infinite. He knows the exact places we are running, the fears we bury, and the lies we believe, and yet he moves toward us in love. No one had ever told me I was lost. Not really. No one named the ache inside me for what it was. But when I opened God's word, something pierced through my soul. And it wasn't shame, it was clarity. It was truth. It was love. Only he could show me the truth about myself, and only he could lead me home. Part four. Seeing ourselves clearly is a gift. So just like any gift, we have to be able to receive it. We need to ask God for the gift, and then we have to receive it. And there's a tension here. It takes humility to say, I've been rebellious. I've trusted other things more than God. But that humility, that's not the end. It's the doorway to healing and to being restored and coming home to God. Psalm 1 0 7 verses 17 and 20 says, some became full through their rebellious ways. Then they cried out to the Lord. He sent out his word and healed them. Friend healing begins when you stop pretending. When you stop saying, I'm fine, and start asking God to reveal what's really going on. Don't look to the left or to the right. Just focus on God and be open. Yes, it might hurt. But it's a healing kind of pain, like surgery that removes what's destroying you. And God is right there in the process. He's not waiting on the other side of your healing. He is in it with you. Okay, so part five, what this means for you, my friend, if something is stirring in you today, if you feel tender or convicted, like maybe you've been trusting other things more than God, please hear this. This is not condemnation. It is an invitation. Let God show you what's in the way. Ask him to help you dig deeper. Take the time you owe it to yourself, and God will meet you there. He's not looking for perfection. He's looking for surrender a surrendered heart. Surrender your fears, surrender it all, and ask God. To show you what's in the way between you and him. So this is it for today, my friend. If this episode stirred something in you, I created a free downloadable devotional called He Heals the Rebellious. It includes all the scriptures from today, journaling prompts and prayer reflections to help you sit with God in this truth. You can find it in the show notes join us in the Cures for Christ Facebook community at bT LY slash Curious for Christ Community where we are talking more about these specific topics, honestly, gently with faith and encouragement. Until next time, and remember, God sees the real you. He knows when your trust waivers and still he heals. He pursues and he calls you his own. You're not too far. You're not too broken. You are loved right here, right now. Thanks for listening to Cures for Christ. And I'll see you next time. Hi, I hope you enjoy today's episode. If so, would you like to take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also struggle with knowing God and his purpose for their life? Also, leave a review on Apple Podcast and let me know what topics you'd like to hear about in the future. Your voice matters. I'll meet you back next Friday. For another episode.