Here's your breakthrough! It's not what you think...

Are we in search of an immediate breakthrough from the Lord?  A miraculous healing or deliverance?  Or are we in it for the long, hard work, painful haul?

Be all in.  Yet another one of those catch phrases that becomes trite-sounding after awhile.  But when you are truly "all in" with Jesus, there is no turning back.  When the road gets rough - and if you are truly "in," it will get rough - what then?

I saw a book on a co-workers desk once (back when we worked in the office - remember those days?), with a title something like, "Here's Your Breakthrough."

I thought about it for a second.

Then the Lord spoke to me, "Forgive others.  That's her breakthrough."

The Spirit knew that she needed to forgive others.  Maybe someone from long ago in particular.  Once she did that, and stuck with it, she would get her breakthrough.

So buying a book and reading it is very easy.  Most anyone can do that.  We want that magic "deliverance" that will offer our breakthrough to us in one simple word or sentence.  So much easier than doing the hard work of forgiving our offenders, or whatever else we need to actually do in order to be and stay free.

I have met so many who call themselves Christians walking around with bitterness and anger in their hearts.  And though they had been wronged, sometimes unimaginably, the pain they carry has, at this point, nothing to do with how they were hurt.  

The pain they now carry is of their own making.  They simply refuse to forgive.  Oh maybe they want to.  Maybe they even tried to at one point.  

But maybe they are not truly "all in" with Jesus.  Maybe they don't really believe Him when He told us to pray "forgive us as we forgive others." Do they really want to be forgiven in the same way they forgive others?!

Since the Lord put it on my heart that my co-worker's release, breakthrough, lie not in reading some book, but in her willingness to forgive someone, I know that He was telling me a truth that applied to many.

Forgive him!  Forgive her!  Forgive them!  There's your breakthrough!

And when you break through, you will finally have peace of mind and heart.

Leave any revenge up to God.  He promises to avenge us if we would just let Him! (Romans 12:19)

Our part is to forgive.  And please, for heaven's sake, do not wait until you feel like it.  You never will!  

Just. Do. It.

When searching online through images about forgiveness, I came upon this one.  Though it is supposed to be funny, ask yourself, is this you?  

Or this?

I thank God a billion times over that when I seek Him for His forgiveness He never, no never, holds a grudge against me, or makes me wait for Him to think about it.  I don't deserve His forgiveness!  None of us deserve it!  Yet He forgives quickly, permanently, and every time.

Oh that we may forgive others as He forgives us!