You See the Breakthrough, However You Don’t Know What God Brought Me Through
You See Me Standing Today - There Were Times When I Could Barely Get Out of Bed
People see the breakthrough.
They see me writing, the ministry, the teaching, the faith, and the smile. They see me encouraging other people to keep going.
What they do not know is everything God brought me through before they ever saw the breakthrough.
There were times when I was alone with almost nothing.
There were times when depression became so overwhelming that getting out of bed felt almost impossible.
And I am going to say something very personal because somebody reading this may need to know that the person encouraging you to keep going has also known what it feels like to wonder whether he could keep going himself.
There were times when I thought suicide was the answer.
I remember thinking about what it would do to my mother, and I knew it would break her heart.
So I stayed.
And today, when I look back, I can see something I could not fully see while I was lying in that darkness:
God was not finished with me.
The man who once struggled to get out of bed is now getting up to tell other people about Jesus Christ.
The man who once wondered whether his life should continue now has an assignment that requires him to tell somebody else:
DON'T YOU QUIT!
You have no idea what God may still do with the life you are considering giving up on.
David said in Psalm 66:10-12 (AMPC) “For You, O God, have proved us; You have tried us as silver is tried, refined, and purified. You brought us into the net (the prison fortress, the dungeon); You laid a heavy burden upon our loins. You caused men to ride over our heads [when we were prostrate]; we went through fire and through water, but You brought us out into a broad, moist place [to abundance and refreshment and the open air].”
“You Brought Us Out”
That hits differently when you know what it means to have needed God to bring you out.
People see where I am standing today.
They were not there when I was lying down wondering whether I even wanted another tomorrow.
They see the ministry, They did not see the depression.
They see the assignment, They did not see the isolation.
They see the testimony, They did not live through the test.
They see what God is doing through me, They do not know everything God had to bring me through.
So I refuse to be ashamed of the chapters of my life that were dark.
Those chapters make the testimony of God's keeping power that much louder.
And if you are reading this from your own dark place, hear me carefully;
Your darkest chapter does not have the authority to declare that your story is over.
I am living proof that you can have a chapter in which you cannot imagine tomorrow and still live long enough to discover that God had purpose waiting for you beyond what you could see.
People may celebrate your breakthrough one day without ever knowing how close you came to giving up before it arrived.
Keep going.
Two Questions For Today
When you look at someone else’s breakthrough, are you judging what God has given them while knowing absolutely nothing about the nights they cried alone, the battles they fought in silence, the times they nearly gave up, and everything God had to bring them through just to still be standing?
And if you are the one in the darkness right now, ready to quit because you cannot see beyond the pain, you are about to make a permanent decision in a temporary season and walk away from a future, an assignment, and a testimony that God has not finished writing yet?
Your pain does not get to write the final chapter.
God is not finished with you yet.
If You Have Ears To Hear, Then Hear It!
I pray for you each and every day.
All God's Best!
Karl McKinnie
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