From Break to Breakthrough

"For a righteous man may fall seven times
And rise again...."-Proverbs 24:16

It feels so good to succeed, but failure is a hard pill to swallow. After doing everything that you could to push through and make it out on top, failure arrogantly busted down the door and got comfortable. You began to facilitate a spirit of low expectations and no hope. You prayed, but you worried, you had faith, but then doubted, you couldn't make up your mind and now you're embarrassed. You proclaimed God's glory and told the world about a man who was capable of anything, but failure and yet here you are basking in it. Failed relationships, failed classes, failed marriages, failed internships, failed job opportunities, failed graduate school applications, failed debit card purchases, failed counseling sessions, failed ministry events, failed outreach programs, failed mission proposals. It all failed, and now you feel like you've failed.

So now you feel as if you have every right to give up and every excuse within reason to quit. Your cards are on the table, your business is out there for everyone to see, and all you want to do is run and hide. You missed graduation by the hair on your chin and you don't really want to return for another semester. You didn't get the promotion that everyone knew that you were next in line for and you don't want to stick around and face your coworkers. Failure is an experience, and if you receive it the wrong way, you may possibly miss your elevation in Christ Jesus.

See, there's something about a break that can really mess you up if you let it. Anything ripped can be viewed as incomplete, but to the optimist a break or tear is an opportunity to create space for something beautiful to happen. To the optimist a break is an avenue for artistic creativity and structural reassignment. To the optimist a break is an opportunity for the broken bone to regain strength and come to a point where what is broken is just as efficient or more efficient than the previous one. In the body of Christ your brokenness through what looks like failure is an avenue for God to take your break and transform it into a break through so that the world might come to know that it was only by the grace of God that you were able to come out on time. See scripture tells us that our thoughts are not his (God) thoughts and our ways are not his ways (Isaiah 55:8), so remember that man may say by May, but God will keep you and wait till December. Man may say that there's one way to get to your dream, and God will turn your life upside down to take you in another direction all while delivering the fulfillment of your visions and dreams from years and years ago. Man may say that it is impossible, but with God all things are possible if you only believe.

Therefore, I encourage you to take the limits off God. Losing your job was the way God placed you in the company of entrepreneurs. That failed attempt to revive that relationship was God's way of letting you know that greater is coming. That missed plane flight was a missed car accident later down the line, so you've got to change your perspective. It takes courage to look at what looks like failure as a lesson learned. Store it in the file of the history of your life and use it as ammunition to improve. To keep pushing, keep praying, and keep praising even if you've got to do it by yourself. Keep paying your tithes and offering even when it looks like things are going to take a turn for the worse. Keep lifting up the name of Jesus, keep putting your best foot forward. Keep being who God has designed you to be because this too shall pass and one day you're going to look back and say, by the grace of God, my break became my break through.

Let us bow:
Our father and our strong God,
You've allowed us an opportunity to step out on faith to trust you, therefore we say thank you. You've granted us another opportunity to show the world how wonderful you are and so again we say thank you. We know that test and trials come to make us stronger so that we might continue to walk in the way that you've called us to go and so we know yet again that we must say thank you. Heavenly father we ask that you be our guide, our shield, and our protector that we might fully appreciate the work that you are currently doing in our lives. Turn the mess of our lives into a message, use the test to create our testimony, use our break that we might experience a mighty break through for we know that it is only by your grace and your mercy that we've made it this far. Have you way Lord, have your way! We don't always understand your ways, but have your way. We don't always agree with your route Lord, but we humble ourselves and say thank you because no matter what we've been through you've been here by outside every step of the way. Keep us in perfect peace that we might continue to lift your worthy name on high for it is in the name of the Christ we pray. Amen!