Stagnancy! We have all been there at one point or the other in our lives. Stagnancy creeps in from the place of complacency or the place of hurt. It might be you refusing to move on from hurts in the past, such as a broken relationship, or a failure that brought you down from supposedly great heights.

If you feel progress has eluded you of late or if you feel like a lake rather than a river, read with me as I share 9 bible verses that encourage you to move forward.

God nudges His children to move forward by encouraging them to:

1- Forget!

Isaiah 43:18n “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.”

Call it selective amnesia, but God really wants you to forget the past. I don’t know what your own past is, but collectively, the past is whatever has come and gone but still has a hold on you in the present. Why? He knows you cannot move forward if you hold on still.

2- Take a chance.

2 Kings 7: 3 n Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die”.

Maybe you ran out of forward-moving choices because of the fear of what is ahead, so you chose the safer option—to sit still and wait life out. But nothing is safer than forward movement. Stagnation does not immune you to failure, and neither does it offers safety. It ultimately leads to death. Ask the dead sea.

When you sit by, you only await your demise, so get up and move forward. Good things come to those who step out.

3- Break up your pity party.

Exodus 14:15n The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”

There may be a hundred reasons you should wallow in self-pity, cry eternally over spilled milk, or complain bitterly over how sweet an already spilled milk would have tasted. But don’t do it! Move past the excuses and go forward. Break up the pity party and move forward.

4- Break out of your comfort zone

Deuteronomy 1: 6-7a.n The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance.

Leave your comfort zone today. God’s commandment to you is to break camp and move forward. Break camp no matter your campground, be it self-pity, shame, failure, or your comfort zone.

5- Break a leg? Limp forward!

Philippians 3:13n Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Hurt from the past? If all you can do is limp, limp forward! Finishing strong does not always infer finishing first or finishing unscathed. It sometimes means limping to the finish line. God wants us to step out, even if the coast is not all clear.

6- A promise of RESTORATION.

Joel 2:25n And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm…

If you chose to move forward, God says I will restore to you the years the enemy has stolen.

7- A whisper that better days are ahead.

Proverbs 4:18n The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

The best is not behind you, so onward ever.

8- A promise that you will never walk alone.

Psalm 32:8n I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

I will hold your hands.

9- Be a river, not a reservoir.

John 15:2n Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

You were called to bear fruit and be a blessing to others. But you cannot achieve that if you remain stuck in your ruts. Blessing others come from the place of overflow. Don’t be a reservoir, be a river.

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