Breakthrough- Find Beauty in the BreakingSample

DAY 2- IT STARTS WITH SOMETHING BREAKING

We can’t pray for breakthrough and then be surprised when it begins with brokenness. 

Breakthrough is such an exciting word until you remember that none of us get excited about the first part of this word – break. We don’t set out in this life to be broken. In fact, our culture is saturated with ways to cope, dull, and avoid anything that makes us feel the discomfort and pain. You can’t, however, have breakthroughs without something first breaking.

If you are going through this devotional with us, chances are you are praying for growth or change in a specific area of your life. Today, can I challenge you to ask yourself if you are willing to go through the necessary process it will take to produce that desired growth in your life, marriage, relationships, finances, or career.

A few years back, in one of those ‘wish you could press fast forward’ seasons, I went on a walk to clear my head. I randomly picked a podcast to shift my thoughts and keep my emotions from spiraling out of control. Bishop TD Jakes preached straight into my soul as he described the process of a seed being planted in the cold, dark soil. It shifted my perspective in a way that I have never forgotten. I had to ask myself some hard questions that day. I had to surrender my desires and dreams to His plans and trust that He is working even when I don’t feel it and can’t see it.

So often in life we want the growth without the growing pain and the plant without the planting.

Unfortunately, you can’t have one without the other.      

•  A seed must be planted in the dark soil. For a seed to grow and produce anything, it must first be planted in cold, dark, unexciting earth. To the natural eye it might look like it is dead and has absolutely nothing to offer this world. Darkness and isolation, however, are the best places for that seed to begin to grow inside. When we embrace aloneness with the Master Gardener in our dark seasons, the resulting intimacy equips and develops us in ways that nothing else can. We must not avoid the places where God wants to do His best work.      
• The growth that is happening inside the seed can’t be seen. For days and weeks that seed looks the same on the outside. It is tempting to keep digging it up to see if it is breaking out of its shell yet, but it is important to not disturb the important work that is going on inside the seed. Just like that seed, heart work can’t always be seen. Yet the surrender, humility, forgiveness and trust that is developed in this dark season will be the platform that can steward that very thing you are praying for.       
• When the time is right, the seed will break out of its shell and leave it behind. There is that word break again. For that seed to grow through the earth and reach the sunshine, it must first leave its shell. Something has to go for us to grow. It might be our comfort that has to go for our faith to grow. It might be certain friendships for our perspective to grow. Weirdly enough, sometimes our incubator can start to feel comfortable. It is warm and familiar. What was once the vessel that protected us and helped us grow stronger, is now the crutch that keeps us from moving forward. This last step of faith will be the key to breaking through the ground into a season of visible growth and fruitfulness.

None of this is comfortable. But it is worth the process and pain, I promise you.

Think about Esther. She is one of my favorite women in the Bible. She was pulled away from her family and every dream and thing that was familiar. It must have been lonely and scary. But it was all for a hidden purpose. She was chosen to be Queen and positioned by God to save her people. I’m sure that year of isolation, purification and endless bathing was not her Plan A. But in the end she recognized that she had been “called for such a time as this”. Esther 4:14

What are you asking God for? Are you asking God to intervene in your finances, work, relationships or marriage? Maybe you want God to use you in greater ways, or you desperately need God to help you in a personal area in your life.

Friend, get ready to go deep, God is preparing you for BREAKTHROUGH!

- Donna

Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion:      

1. Am I fully surrendered to His plan, even if it feels like something is breaking and it’s not what I would have chosen?      
2. Have I been rushing a season that God is using to work deeply in my heart?      
3. Are there areas of heart work that I need to address in this season? (forgiveness, trust, surrender, humility)

DAILY ACTION STEP:

Think of an area in your life that you are praying for breakthrough. Take some time to write out a faith statement of trust that God is working in that area of your life. Begin this declaration with, “Today, I choose to trust that God is working in …. “ Post this faith statement in a place you will see it. 

Read it out loud daily.