Barriers and Breakthroughs

I am sure those two words ignite a memory for you, bringing to mind a time when you had a breakthrough and a time when you had a barrier to break through. I absolutely can relate!
If you could go back and ask yourself whether the barrier was worth it before your breakthrough, would you change it?

I’m sure there are many different answers to that question, but the barrier likely propelled you forward, and the breakthrough was much sweeter.
I think back to my time at Heritage College and Seminary, and I would say that with every assignment or presentation, there was more than one barrier and more than one breakthrough.
It was always a matter of giving it time and much prayer! I researched, refined, and rewrote. The barriers were what to add and what to remove, the correct formatting, whether I had done enough research, and whether it was too long or redundant. I remember that word well from high school and university; when I was writing, it was redundant!

So much of life is about refining ourselves to become more like Christ. If we do it on our strength, we will fall; we need the Holy Spirit to guide us and rely on God for the next step.

When the barriers confront us and the hope of celebration that follows with a breakthrough, we are becoming and believing we are more than our barriers. Maybe a breakthrough happened when you clicked send – the paper is done. You accepted the job offer. You decided to homeschool your child. You learned how to cook, change churches, and so on.
When a barrier comes, we tend to stay stuck, unable to believe that a breakthrough is on the horizon. Whatever that breakthrough may be, it is possible—and may not be what you expected.
Not long ago, I interviewed my nephew’s wife, Mackenzie. She eloquently spoke about the need to overcome the barrier of unforgiveness. I will link it here, just in case you have not had the opportunity to watch it. She also wrote an incredible blog post, which I will link here.

I’ve been reflecting recently on the barrier of unforgiveness, which can creep into one’s life and complicate things. I am forgiven. I am a child of God and adopted into his family. He is my Heavenly Father. I didn’t deserve any of it. He did not owe me anything, but even while I was a sinner, Christ died for me, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus forgave me, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

I also must forgive others – so much easier to write and say than it is to do, but as Mackenzie shares in her interview and blog post, it’s what we are called to do as believers. It’s not like we have a choice in the matter!
Does forgiveness mean a full reinstating of a relationship or a friendship? No. I don’t believe so. Over my lifetime, I have experienced hurt and hurt other people, and I can’t expect them to forgive me, but I know I need to forgive others. Maybe there’s another barrier in your life—it may not be forgiveness. It might be something else. The Lord knows what it is; you can confidently go to him and lay it at his feet. Maybe it is a broken relationship with a child or a spouse, a Church, workplace, sibling, or perhaps you need to forgive yourself.

The breakthrough is acknowledging the barrier and making strides towards what’s holding you back.

My prayer for you and what I pray for myself is I would listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying in my life and how he’s guiding and helping me because the Holy Spirit is our helper. He can help us forgive, soften our hearts and see others how Jesus sees them: He loves them, he created them and as it says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Jesus stands at the door and knocks. He’s waiting for us to respond. Maybe that’s the breakthrough you were waiting for today: to respond to Jesus, to turn to him, and to thank him for dying on the cross for your sins—for loving you so much that he gave his life!

Jesus is hope, and maybe that is what we all need to remember today. No matter the barrier, we have hope in Jesus.

 

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16)

 ^“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”. (Romans 3:23-26)