This made me cry. I guess because I have been waiting too...
I hope midnight comes soon :)
===
How To Have A Breakthrough
Sorry, no 9-page article today.
This will be short.
I just want to ask you a question: Do you feel like you’re stuck in an area of your life?
Perhaps you feel you’re not growing in your marriage.
Or in your career.
Or in your relationship with our kids.
Or in your fight against bad habits.
If this your situation, let me share God’s Word to you today…
The Purpose Of Pain
I was reading a story of a guy who was only 14 years old but already 200 pounds. His parents told him to lose weight. His teachers told him to lose weight. His friends told him to lose weight. But he never did.
Until one day, something happened.
It was swimming class. And he was in his trunks, standing on the concrete slab. Beside him were 7 other young boys who were as heavy as the breakfast he ate that morning. And surrounding him were hundreds of people all looking at his direction.
He felt so embarrassed.
Standing on that concrete slab, half-naked in the swimming pool, he couldn’t hide anymore the teenage flab. All of a sudden, he realized he needed to change.
And that’s what he did.
Today, he’s not only changed his body, he changed his mind too. He’s become a stronger, happier, more confident individual.
He thanks God for that moment of pain.
Without that pain, there would have been no breakthrough in his life.
You may be in a lot of intense pain right now.
You have a choice.
When there’s intense pain in your life, you can respond in two ways.
You can have a breakdown.
Or you can have a breakthrough.
The choice is yours.
What will it be for you?
God’s Answer May Come At Midnight
Are you waiting for a miracle? Waiting for an answered prayer? Waiting for a breakthrough?
Perhaps you have been praying for a child that has gone wayward. You’ve wept many tears, asking God that your child come back. But after many years, you’re still waiting for the answer to that prayer.
Perhaps you’ve have been hoping for financial breakthrough. So far, nothing has been happening yet. Sometimes, you wonder if God has forgotten you.
Perhaps you’ve been praying that you be delivered from a habitual sin. Time and time again, you have fallen. You continue to wait for that day when you’ll be free from your addiction. You wonder if it will ever come.
If you’re in this difficult situation right now, listen to the story of Jesus about the 10 bridesmaids. He said…
At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there were ten young women who took their oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any extra oil with them, while the wise ones took containers full of oil for their lamps. The bridegroom was late in coming, so they began to nod and fall asleep… (Matthew 25:1-5)
In the story, the ten women fell asleep. Not just the foolish ones. But the wise ones too. Because they got tired of waiting.
Are you tired of waiting?
Are you tempted to just give up?
Some people have given up all expectation. So that they can avoid the pain of disappointments. Some have chosen to live in the bottom pit and be content living there.
And then Jesus continues the story…
It was already midnight when the cry rang out, Here is the bridegroom! Come and meet him!
Friend, what you have been waiting for will come.
But it may come at midnight. It may come late in the night. It may come when you thought it wouldn’t come anymore. But it will come. I don’t know how. Don’t let me explain how. But what you’re praying for—in its most beautiful form—will be given to you.
The difference between the wise women and the foolish women were the amount of oil they brought.
And the oil represents your trust.
Will you bring extra trust in God during those times when He answers your prayer at midnight?
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
