Tag Archives: breakthrough

Hope for the Uphill Days

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Yesterday was one of those days when everything kind of crashed and burned. Ever had one of those uphill days? I should have known because our kids were tired after having spent the day at Six Flags the day before with the teens from church. Our downfall started early when everyone started fighting over the details of something that had happened the day before. It continued to train wreck when Matt and I got frustrated with each other. It was an uphill battle from then on.

An Uphill Day

By last night, I was just ready for the day to be over. When Matt and Maggie left to go on a walk before bed, I didn’t want to go. But when I looked outside, I could see the sunset was really pretty. So I grabbed my sneakers and socks and got ready to head out. But by the time I made it out the door, the color was gone. It was just a plain evening sky once again. Irritation reared its head, and I almost decided to go back home. But I pushed myself to get up the long, gradual hill and past house after house. The further I went the more frustrated I got. Several times, I almost turned around. But I finally got to the top of the hill and turned a corner, and there it was. Color. From this view, I could still see some of the sunset. I smiled to myself and thanked God I hadn’t given up and gone back home.

By the time I got back home, my spirit was better. I was still ready to go to bed, and everything wasn’t magically better. But I had hope, and that was enough to get through the night.

The Hope of Good to Come

I thought about last night’s walk as I went to sleep and what a picture of our walk of faith it is. There are so many days when it feels like we’re walking uphill and not making any progress. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel; there’s no beautiful sunset. There’s the only the hope of something good to come; and sometimes, there’s not even hope. But we keep going; we keep trusting, believing, doing what we know God wants us to do. Then one day, we get a glimpse of God’s goodness. It’s air in our lungs, wind in our sails, and just enough to keep us going.

I read this verse this week in Isaiah and love it so much. It’s the kind of verse we need to write down and hang up in a visible place in our homes to be reminded of daily.

Therefore the Lord is waiting to show you mercy,
and is rising up to show you compassion,
for the Lord is a just God.
All who wait patiently for him are happy.

Isaiah 30:18 CSB

Wait Patiently

Find comfort in those words today if you’re going through a difficult season or simply just a bad day. God sees you. He is waiting to show you mercy, rising up to show you compassion. If you will simply wait patiently for Him, He will go to work on you behalf.

Wherever you are today, keep going. The sunset is waiting just around the next bend. You never know when God is going to break through. It’s too soon to quit. Your breakthrough might be just around the corner, and you won’t see it if you give up now. So keep loving, trusting, being faithful, and doing what God’s called you to do today.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, check out Matt’s book, Breakthrough: Transforming the Death of a Dream into the Birth of a Breakthrough or check out my post, Don’t Give Up on the Dream God has Given You.

Waiting on God to Write Your Story

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choose to wait for the story that's still being written

Copying Someone Else’s Story

Sometimes it seems like life would be easier if we could just write our own story, or copy somebody else’s story for our life. Instead of waiting, if we could just force God’s hand to make things happen, surely that would be better than what we’re stuck with right now.

We know that God writes our story. We know the verses, we know the sayings…but when push comes to shove, life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. It’s really hard to see how it’s all going to work together for good.

Hard Conversations

I’ve had a few conversations with friends lately that were painful…conversations nobody wants to have. Hard conversations. Things like—what do you do when your spouse withholds his love from you? What do you do when your spouse cheats on you? How do you keep going forward when nothing seems to be working out? How do you trust God when it seems like he keeps failing you?

I used to think I had all the answers; that was before I learned what real life looked like. Real life is dirty and messy and full of questions. It’s not all neat and wrapped up with a bow that has a neatly transcribed verse on the side of the box and a pithy saying like “let go and let God” written on the top. No, life is full of mistakes, regrets, failures, and messes. It doesn’t always work out the way we think it should.

Things Don’t Always Work Out

No matter how much we pray, sometimes we still lose the job, we can’t pay the bill, we don’t have enough money for that present, the breakup still happens, our spouse still hurts us, a friend breaks our heart, the loved one still dies, and on and on the list goes.

I’m sure you could add your own heartbreak. Often, it feels like life would be easier if we could just force our own breakthrough. If we could superimpose God’s will for our will and get things moving, it would really help.

People Who Didn’t Wait

I can’t help but think about the people in the Bible who simply gave up too early. If only they could have waited just a little bit longer.

I think of Saul. He waited and waited for Samuel to show up to offer the sacrifice, but Samuel was late. Saul got impatient and decided to do it himself. The Bible says that as he was offering the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. If Saul would have waited just a few minutes longer, he wouldn’t have missed God’s best. What did it cost him? The kingdom. God was so displeased with Saul’s disobedience that he took the kingship from him and gave it to David.

Another example is Abraham. God told him he would have a son, but he wasn’t content to wait on God. He decided to write his own breakthrough into the story and royally messed up all of history. Because he didn’t wait for God to bless him and Sara with a baby but instead slept with Sara’s servant, Ishmael was born. A few years later, Abraham and Sara had Isaac. Ishmael’s descendants and Isaac’s descendants are still at war today.

Those Who Waited

Conversely, we see God’s hand of blessing on Joseph who waited through years of bad treatment and harsh consequences before God broke through. In the end, God wrote a beautiful story for him.

David waited for nearly fifteen years from the time he was anointed king to when he actually became king of Israel. He stayed faithful to God and didn’t waver from God’s path. In the end, his story played out beautifully.

Wait for God to Write Your Story

We get impatient and want to write our own story, but we can’t. Our story won’t look nearly as beautiful as the one God is writing; it will simply be a copy and pasted version of somebody else’s story.

We have to choose to wait for God to write our story. Wait for him to give us our own. I promise it will be more beautiful than anything we could have written for ourselves.

For More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my husband’s book, Breakthrough: Transforming the Death of a Dream to the Birth of a Breakthrough or read my post Choosing Hope: The Best is Yet to Come.

A song that’s really been encouraging my heart lately is Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr. Give it a listen and let it encourage your heart.