“The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters!” 2 Samuel 5:20
Confession #1: I am in a tight place, not the broad place I so freely write about…the cornerstone of this blog.
I’m not alone. The enemy has been in my neighborhood too. He has been relentlessly doing whatever he can to keep me from picking up my pen again.
In case you haven’t noticed yet…
The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to believe God wants to bring you to a broad place, to deliver you from the tight spaces. But these last few months I’ve been living in a distressed place. The enemy delights in seeing me muddle through my mess… trying to convince me God does not have a breakthrough for me. Your situation might be different, yet the words of doubt and accusations of inadequacy bombard all of us to steal our peace and purpose. I would imagine, based on the many, many lament psalms penned by David, that he was quite familiar with the enemy’s devices to discourage him. Yet he always ended in praise and knew God has the last word.
Confession #2: I still haven’t had a breakthrough into the broad place.
Despite returning from a most awesome weekend spent with fellow Messianic believers soaking in truth about the breakthrough of waters.
But the water IS starting to trickle through. I know it is the Lord alone who will faithfully pursue me and His purposes for me. And God sent his messenger that weekend to encourage me to return to my keyboard. A stranger but a sister in the Lord approached me with apples of gold words to inspire me to pursue God’s calling to write. Like the slogan we’re so familiar with…just do it, just write!
So from the brokenness of being in that crushing season, I recall the seed that needs to die in the ground before bringing forth fruit. I believe by faith the trickles will accumulate to form streams and then cascades of water.
Perhaps it’s just having the eyes to see the trickles before the breakthrough.
One doesn’t have to search long in the Bible to find broken individuals with the enemy at their heels. There is always a “BUT GOD” to follow when their mighty God not only used them in their brokenness but brought victory and glory to His name.
Quite timely, I am now reading the book of Joshua. We love that book because of how often God reminded him to “be strong and courageous”. Clearly he was not. Yet to this day West Point Academy still uses his military strategies. Even after Joshua messed up by making a treaty with those sneaky Gideonites which brought on war after war, God delivered all the enemies into his hand. That’s quite a lot of victorious breakthrough.
Did Joshua recognize just when the breakthrough came? Was it when the land finally rested from war? (Joshua 11:23) Or did he acknowledge all the mini-breakthroughs along the way that led Israel to victory?
The enemy. The breakthrough. It’s not a combination we would entertain. But in God’s Kingdom, it’s the perfect equation. Throw in a little brokenness in those God chooses to use (that would be you and me) and you’ve got quite a page turner.
