Break Out!: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life (31 page)

My mother knows she was made in the image of Almighty God. Growing up, she never worried about wearing a dress. In fact, she still wears dresses today. At nearly eighty years old, she is still showing off her legs!

She never let her leg keep her from working out in the yard. Her experience with polio didn’t stop her from praying for others in need of healing. Despite the “disadvantage,” she’s lived a full and blessed life.

Why? She got over it. She didn’t make excuses. She didn’t fall into the self-pity trap. Sometimes we may be tempted to think, “If I had a different life I’d be better off.
If I had his talent or her family or their house, things would be great.
” But don’t compare your situation to anyone else’s. You’re not running their race.

It may seem like others have more advantages, or more going for them, but God has given you the grace you need to fulfill your destiny. You’re not anointed to be them. You are anointed to be you.

Shake off any self-pity and any bitterness. Your attitude should be: “Nobody owes me anything. I am not at a disadvantage. I didn’t get left out, shortchanged, passed over, or cheated. I am equipped, empowered, and anointed. All the forces of darkness cannot keep me from my destiny.”

Your time is too valuable, your assignment too important, to go through life thinking about what you didn’t get, who hurt you, and what didn’t work out. That is a trick of the enemy to get you distracted and wasting valuable energy on things that don’t matter. He would love to keep you discouraged, in self-pity, blaming others, blaming yourself, and even blaming God.

I’m asking you to get over anything holding you back: A bad attitude. An offense. What somebody did to you. A mistake you made. Don’t be pitiful when you can be powerful. The Creator of the universe breathed His life into you. Every day of your life already has been written in God’s book. The good news is that your book ends in victory.

We all go through tough times, but we’re not supposed to stay there. Keep turning the page and you’ll come to another victory.

God knew there’d be unfair situations in your life. That’s why He’s arranged a comeback for every setback, a vindication for every wrong, and a new beginning for every disappointment. Don’t let one bad break, a divorce, or a rough childhood cause you to sour on life.

If your boss didn’t give you the promotion, get over it. God has something better in store. If certain “friends” leave you out, and won’t give you their approval, get over it. You don’t need their approval. Don’t play up to them or try to win them over. You have Almighty God’s approval, that’s all that matters.

Maybe your business didn’t make it. You had a setback. Now you think, “What did I do wrong? I blew it. This is the end.” No, get over it. Don’t condemn yourself. You are not a failure. You took a step of faith, and a door closed. That means you’re one step closer to an open door.

When you are knocked down, don’t stay down. Get back up again. Nothing good will happen as long as you’re down on yourself, down on life, focused on your mistakes and your disadvantages. That attitude will keep you from the amazing future God has in store.

You may be dealing with a sickness, and my heart goes out to you. I will stand in faith with you. But don’t you dare sit around nursing your wounds, thinking, “Poor old me. I guess my life is over. I’ve got this disadvantage.”

Instead, fight the good fight of faith. God did not bring you this far to leave you. When the going gets tough, the tough have to get going. Get over the disappointment. Get over the self-pity. Get over the doubt.

You have been armed with strength for this battle. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Nothing can snatch you out of God’s hand. The enemy doesn’t have the final say; God has the final say. And He says the number of your days He will fulfill. So, keep turning that page, praying, believing, being your best, being good to other people, and you will come into another chapter, a chapter of victory.

Think about the story of Job. He had a lot to get over. He lost his health, his family, and his business. If anybody had a right, at least in the natural, to have a chip on his shoulder, to be angry and bitter, it would have to be Job. He was a good man. He loved God. He was being his best. Yet his life was turned upside down.

The Scripture says, “Rain falls on the just and the unjust.” I’d love to tell you that if you have faith and you love God, then you’d never have any difficulties. But that’s not reality. I can tell you when the storms come, if you’ve got your house built upon the rock, if you’ve got an unshakable confidence in God, if you know the Lord as your shepherd, then the storms will come, but you will not be defeated.

When it’s all said and done, you may go through the fire, through the flood, and through the famine, but you’ll come out standing strong. Don’t be discouraged by the storm. Don’t fall into self-pity. “I don’t know what I did wrong.” You may not have done anything wrong. Maybe it’s because you’re doing something right. You may be taking new ground for the Kingdom. You’re setting a new standard for your family. The enemy will not roll out the red carpet to allow you to fulfill your destiny. But know this: the forces for you are greater than the forces against you.

Job could have given up on life, blamed God, and thought, “Just my luck. I do my best and look what happens to me.” Instead, right in the middle of his challenges, when he could have been bitter and sour, he looked up to the heavens and said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

He was saying in effect, “No matter what comes my way, I’m not getting bitter, angry, offended, or carrying a chip on my shoulder. My situation may not be fair. But I know a secret. My God is still on the Throne. He will make my wrongs right. I may not like it, but I’m going to get over it and keep moving forward.”

Nine months later, Job came out with twice what he had before. When
you get over it, you position yourself for double. When you forgive someone who did you wrong, get ready for double. When you have a good attitude even though life has thrown you a curve, get ready for double. When you go through life being your best, even though it seems like you’re at a disadvantage, get ready for double.

Your thoughts may tell you that you aren’t as talented, as influential, or as advantaged as others, but you know better than to believe those lies. Instead of becoming depressed, you shake it off, knowing that you have been made in the image of Almighty God. You have royal blood flowing through your veins.

You don’t let what people say or tough circumstances pull you down. No matter what comes your way, you get over it and keep moving forward. When you do that, you better get ready. God says to you what He said to Job, “Double is coming your way.”

Double the joy. Double the peace. Double the favor.

Is there something you need to get over today? Do you need to get over a friend’s betrayal? Do you need to get over a business deal that didn’t work out? Do you need to get over a childhood that wasn’t so great? Unless you get over, they will keep you from the fullness God has in store.

The key to earning the double is to not get bitter. Don’t have a chip on your shoulder or feel you are owed something. Don’t make excuses or live in a sour mood. Many people blame their pasts for their bitterness or lack of success. They blame the way they were raised, what they weren’t given, or who wasn’t around.

God is not surprised by what was lacking or hurtful in your past. Don’t use those things as an excuse to go through life feeling shortchanged. Move forward. This is a new day. God knew who your parents would be. He knew what kind of environment you would be raised in. I’m not making light of hardships and hurts. Some people grew up in very unfair and difficult situations. They didn’t get the love, the approval, or the support they should have had. But I don’t believe in giving people the right to feel sorry for themselves.

That will keep you from the amazing future God has in store. It may not have been fair, but if you have the right attitude, then instead of being a setback it’ll be a setup for God to do something great in your life.

I know people in their fifties who still talk about what Momma didn’t give them. Have you ever thought that maybe Momma didn’t have it to give? Maybe your father did the best he could with what he had. Sometimes we rely too much on people when we should be relying on God.

Psalm 27:10 says, “God adopts us as His very own children.” Your mother or father may not have given you what you needed, but if you start looking to God, He will make up for everything you lacked.

I’ve heard it said, “If you want someone to give you 100 percent, don’t look around. Look up. God is the only One who can give you everything you need.”

Some people were never taught to show love, to express approval. They had no role models for that. They pass down what they’ve experienced. If you look only to other people, you’ll be disappointed. They will let you down. And if you’re not careful, you’ll become bitter and resentful toward them. You may think, “You owe me. Why won’t you give it to me? What’s wrong with you?” But maybe God is teaching you to rely not on people but on Him. Let people off the hook. Quit trying to make another person be everything to you. No one has 100 percent. No one can meet all your needs—it doesn’t matter how good that person may be, how loving or how kind. At some point, that person will fall short.

Look up to your Heavenly Father instead and say, “God I know You will give me everything I need.”

My father told me that when he was in his late forties, he started thinking about how rough his childhood had been. His family was very poor. At times, they barely had food to survive. He went around with old raggedy clothes, with holes in them. One day, it hit him as being so unfair. He became aggravated at his parents. He thought, “Why didn’t they raise me better? Why wasn’t my father around to give me the support, the encouragement, that I needed?”

When you open the door to self-pity, to blame, all kinds of negative thoughts will flood your mind. The enemy will be right there to add to it and tell you, “You’re right. They did you wrong. You got cheated. You should have a chip on your shoulder. You need to go straighten them out.”

My father was about to drive from Houston to Dallas to tell his parents they didn’t do a good job raising him and they put him at a disadvantage,
which just wasn’t fair. Before he left, God spoke to him. Not out loud but down in his heart.

He had a conversation with God along these lines:

“Son, they did you wrong, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, God, they did,” Daddy said.

“They didn’t give you what you needed, did they?”

“No, God, they didn’t.”

“It wasn’t fair was it?”

“No, it wasn’t fair.”

“Son, how would you have done if you had been in their shoes? With no money? With no air-conditioning? No dishwasher? No washing machine? Your mother was working twelve hours a day making ten cents an hour. Your father had a fourth-grade education and lost everything on the farm during the Great Depression. He had to stand in line for food,” God said. “Son, do you think you may have made a few mistakes?”

When my father saw it from that perspective, he realized his parents had done an amazing job considering the circumstances they had. It’s easy to dwell on what we didn’t get and where our parents made mistakes, or how they should have done better. But most of the time, if we put ourselves in their shoes, we’ll find they did the best they could with what they had.

Why don’t you let those who hurt you off the hook? Quit expecting them to be perfect. Look to God to give you what people cannot give you. Otherwise you will get bitter, and when you’re bitter it poisons every area of your life.

Hebrews 12 talks about a root of bitterness. I’ve learned that a bitter root will always produce bitter fruit. Bitter people don’t have good relationships. They’re too negative. When we’re bitter it affects our attitudes. We see everything through a critical lens. Nothing is ever good enough. Bitter people can smile on the outside, but on the inside they’re thinking, “I don’t like you. Why did you show up here?”

Bitterness taints everything about them. It infects everything you do and follows you everywhere you go. There was a grandfather whose grandkids decided to play a trick on him during his regular afternoon nap. They took some potent awful-smelling cheese and rubbed it on his moustache
while he was sound asleep on the couch. Within a couple of minutes, his nose began to twitch. He quickly woke up and said, “Boy, it stinks in this room.”

He left the family room to escape the smell, but it was in the kitchen, too. He took a sniff here and a sniff there. “It stinks in this room, too,” he said.

Frustrated, he went outside to get a breath of fresh air. He took a deep breath, shook his head, and said, “Man, the whole world stinks!”

If the whole world ever stinks for you, might I suggest you look inside? Maybe there are some adjustments you need to make. Bitterness will follow you everywhere you go. A man I know was bent out of shape because he felt his former employer mistreated him. Overall, this boss had been very good to him, loving and kind, but the man felt a few bad things had been done to him here and there. He could have overlooked it and focused on the good. But he made the mistake of letting the bitterness take root. More than twenty years later, the bitter fruit from those roots of resentment is obvious. He’s negative. Always finding fault, he has a chip on his shoulder.

When we hold on to things we should let go, refusing to forgive, remembering the worst, we only poison our own lives. God is saying, “Get over it.”

Life is flying by. You don’t have time to waste another minute being negative, offended, or bitter. If someone did you wrong, get over it and God will make it up to you. If you had a bad break that left you at a disadvantage, get over it. God is still on the Throne.

My friend Nick Vujicic was born with no arms and no legs. He could be sitting around saying, “God, it’s not fair. I have no reason to live. I have no future in front of me.” No, Nick has taken the cards he was dealt and he’s making the most of it. Today, he’s a minister who travels the world challenging people not to let any disadvantage hold them back.