“God, I quit! Where are you? I’m trying. I really am, but I can’t do this without you. I need your HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!”
I remember feeling super frustrated that day. I was used to giving God my quiet, reserved prayers because I love Him and didn’t want to offend Him. I mean, I would travail and intercede for others with great intensity; but what about me? Why did I think I couldn’t be upfront with the One, I call Father. Did I believe He couldn’t handle it? Or was I concerned He was going to be so angry with me and punish me for sharing my heartfelt pain and anguish?
Truthfully, there was no one else who I could trust with that level of grief, but God.
“God, I need you,” I cried.
I know He already knew how I felt, but I also know He wanted His child to come and talk to Him about how I really felt. He didn’t stop loving me because I was upset.
Question, “Have you ever reached a breaking point?”
It’s the moment where you get tired wearing a mask and trying to crack a smile to make everyone else feel good, because you need a moment or as I like to say a “MoMent (for the moms out there).” When you reach the breaking point, you can no longer “Fake it till you make it.” As a matter of fact, you realize faking it was never what you were supposed to do anyway. When you reach the breaking point, you finally discover you were never made to do everything in your own strength. Here’s a golden nugget – God never told us to depend on ourselves, although we sure do try.
The Breaking Point will cause you to say, “Forget about this make-up and hair. I could care less about what people think! I don’t want to keep going on like this. I know there’s more to life than this.” And there is. If you’ve ever reached the breaking point, I want you to know it doesn’t have to drive you to the place of no return. Even if you quit, you can always get back up and try again.
There something powerful about acknowledging you’ve had enough. Playing it safe doesn’t cut it. Maybe you’re trying to be a “good Christian” and be ever so kind and gentle with someone who is allowing the enemy to use them to belittle you. Perhaps they have taken the liberty to treat you like a doormat. Perhaps, you’ve been telling yourself it’s the right thing to do. But for how long? One day I read a scripture I had never seen before; it was found in Isaiah 51:23;
“But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou has laid thy body down as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
In other words, He was saying, you laid your body down for people to walk over, because they told you to do it. Have you ever done that before? I sure have. Talk about humbling. That alone has led many to the breaking point because deep inside they know they are called for so much more. The breaking point has caused some to snap while others realized they could no longer contain the frustration they were feeling.
In the next chapter the Word of God reads “1Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck. O captive daughter of Zion.” (Isaiah 51:1 & 2)
God never created you handle everything on your own. Yes, He wants you to step forward, but as you step you must know you are not walking alone. Pray before you move by faith and then trust the God of the process. Believe God, who makes all things beautiful in His time and season. There is no failure in God. You are worth fighting for and no one is going to fight for your more than you and God.
As I get ready to close, I want to say stress is not good for the body. Don’t hold things in because sooner or later those trapped emotions will try to find a way out. Even if it means kicking, screaming and yelling at the wrong person. Stress will choose its own path if you let it.
So, what do I want you to do? I want you to come clean with how you feel and realize those feelings will dissipate with God. However, when we feel out of sorts, it’s usually due to something else that’s going on inside or outside. Find out the source of your frustration, do yourself a favor and deal with it, with God first and then others.
- I want you to realize it’s not always the person who we lash out at that is causing the problem, they are just unknowingly doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Like asking for a candy bar or leaving up the toilet seat, when you feel like your world is falling apart. It’s not. Don’t be hard on them or yourself.
- I want you to start forgiving yourself, while realizing the Lord died for every sin and mistake you were going to make way before you did. I’m so glad God is bigger than my falters and failures. Let God be God and you give yourself permission to be a benefactor of His mercy and grace.
- Forgive others. This is not a cliché, it’s a command from God. Forgiving others who have wronged you is not always easy, but God knew we would need help in this area too. Whenever, I even think about holding something against someone I hear, “Look at Jesus.” After that I’m good, because I know I haven’t suffered the way He did. He loved the very ones who hurt Him.
If you’ve reached the breaking point, I want you to know it’s not the end. It can be the beginning of a new and resilient day. I know it doesn’t feel good, but feelings change – God doesn’t. His power never fails. Trust Him.
Always remember, God has a way of taking broken things and putting them back together again. Prayerfully cheering you forward.
Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
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