Your breakthrough will happen in unlikely places

In what area or areas do you need a breakthrough?  Where have you been hurting or struggling lately?  Or even for a while?

You've prayed.

You've waited on the Lord.

You are trusting Him as best you can.

But you've been through the wringer and it has taken its toll.

You are in a vulnerable position, but it's not over!

Did you know that God can give you a breakthrough right here and now while you are still in your dificult season?  He doesn't always change our circumstances (though He easily could) in order to bless us with breakthrough.

I have found that He comes to me, heals my heart, reveals a needed Scripture to me, right here and now - in the midst of my struggle, pain, and heartache.  What a God!

Then I thought of the riches we are privy to through the trials and sufferings of others in the words they left behind.  One thing is for sure, the following people had no idea while they were going through their trial that God would use them in huge ways much later.

Here are just a few I thought of, though I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds more:

- The apostle Paul in prison
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a concentration camp
- Anne Frank hid in fear of the Nazis and later died in a concentration camp
- Corrie ten Boom hid Jews from the Nazis and later was in a concentration camp

Each of these went through hell and somehow wrote the most beautiful, hopeful, Christ-filled words that we now treasure today.  How can this be?  And what exactly is my point?

My point is this.  These heroes of ours suffered tremendously and yet they produced works - good, hopeful, and pure works - in the midst of their atrocities (with the exception of Corrie who wrote after her horrific experiences).  

So what gold is the Lord producing in you during your "prison" season?  A prison does not have to be a literal one in order for it to be real.

When we keep looking to the Lord and don't let our circumstances get the best of us, we overcome.  And if we let the "prison" teach us, we too can write pure gold from which others will benefit.

Writing not your thing?  Then use whatever gifts and talents the Lord has given you and use them now, in your darkest time.  And watch Him turn it around.  He may not turn around your circumstance, like you want Him to, but He turns you around. In your thinking, in your heart, in your soul, as you surrender to His good, pleasing, and perfect will for your life.

Am I saying that prison or a concentration camp was God's will for these writers?  Not at all.  

But God knows exactly where to put us, or let us be put (He is always Sovereign), in order for us to become our best, most fruitful selves.  Who are we to pick and choose where He places us?  When we received Him as Lord of our lives, we handed those keys over to Him - the keys of control over our lives. 

This in no way leaves us victims of God's whims (He is not a whimsical, but a purposeful God), but instead in the hands of a Master, Genius Sculpture who, like Michaelangelo, chisels away at us until the "angel" inside of us is formed and revealed.  

I'm sure if the marble could talk, it would be screaming in agony while Michaelangelo chipped away at it!  But oh the results!  The beauty!  The legacy!

So these writers, and countless other faithful God-followers, found breakthrough as they wrote.  They teach us, heal us, encourage, and inspire us through their words.  Words written from very dark places.

When we let God be God and stop looking for meaning beyond the pain, we will find meaning during the pain.  We can be even more fruitful during our painful seasons if we stay close to God and let Him work through us.  

Were the writers I list here triumphant in escaping their circumstances?  Some were, eventually.  For the others, their lives ended then and there.  But their stories live on!  Alleluia!  Paul did not once pray for escape, to be released from prison.  His eyes were on God and being an encouragement to others instead.  Us?  We want release, escape, thinking that our "best lives" are elsewhere, beyond our dark circumstances.

God is writing our stories when we belong to Him.  We may be tempted to think that some of His chapters we would never write for ourselves, that we could somehow do better.  But He is not after changing our circumstances as much as He is changing our hearts.  The choice of letting our hearts take courage and not get bitter is up to us to choose.  All of the writers I talk about here had every right to be bitter over their lives.  Yet they were not!  Talk about a miracle-working God!  Talk about a deeper level of trusting in God!

If we allow Him, God will work breakthrough in our souls right here and now, whatever our circumstances. We don't need breakthrough during the easy times.  We draw inner strength from our God during the hard times.  And everything that comes our way that is meant to break or ruin us, God will use to make us into the people that He wants us to be - but only if we cooperate with Him, trust Him, and let Him live in us here and now.  

Dear Lord.  I can only imagine prison life - how infernal it must have been for these saints.  Yet by Your power and grace inside them, through their faith in You, they produced everlasting words and works that are treasures for us here and now.  These people were not just being optimists!  Optimism is not powerful enough to transform us when the chips are down.  No.  The Source of their strength was You, Almighty God.  Please be the Source of our strength always, dear Lord.  And reveal to us all the ways that You want to use us as You break through in our souls here and now, wherever we are.  Fill us with Your supernatural hope, healing, and power, O God.  In Jesus' Name. Amen.