Break Out!: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life (30 page)

We all start off at the same place. We’re lumps of hard clay. We have impurities including pride, selfishness, impatience, anger, and resentment. God puts us on the potter’s wheel and begins to spin us around. When He comes across one of those lumps, those impurities, He will put us in a situation to work it out. The key is to pass the test. Don’t fight against everything you don’t like. Learn to overlook an offense. Make allowances for somebody who is hard to get along with. Quit feeling hurt because someone offended you. Toughen up and pass those tests.

The Scripture talks about the “fire of affliction” where you could either give up and get sour or you can say, “God, I’ll show You what I’m made of. I’ll forgive those who hurt me. I’ll keep believing even though it looks impossible. I’ll stay in faith even though it was unfair.”

When you pass those tests, something is deposited on the inside that nothing can take away. There is a trust, a confidence, a knowing that can be developed only by going through the fire of affliction. I’ve learned that God is not as interested in changing my circumstances as He is in changing me.

Where you are is not nearly as important as who you are. While God is changing the “where,” allow Him to change the “who.” He wants to bring the pearl out of you.

Questions I ask myself quite often include, “How much have I grown in the last five years? Do I have a better attitude? Do I trust God more? Do I treat people better? Am I more patient? Do I forgive quicker?”

We should be growing, bearing more fruit. We shouldn’t be in the same place this year as we were last year. If you are still getting upset over the same things that upset you five years ago, it’s time to grow up.

If the same person who was getting on your nerves five years ago is still stealing your joy, you need to look inside and make some changes. God may not change them. He wants to use them to change you.

Life is flying by. We cannot waste time going around the same mountain year after year like the people of Israel headed toward the Promised Land. That was an eleven-day trip, but it took them forty years. You and I cannot afford to waste forty years learning lessons we could easily learn in a fraction of the time. Put your foot down and say, “That’s it. This is a new day. I will not keep going around that same mountain, having a bad attitude every time I don’t get my way, arguing with my spouse over the same petty issues, giving in to the same temptation time and time again.”

Look inside yourself and decide to make the necessary changes. The sooner you start passing these tests, the better off you will be. There is a pearl in you. You may have a lot of rough edges. You may have a thousand areas you need to improve in, but know that as long as you are moving forward God is pleased with you.

As long as you are making progress, even if it’s small, God is up in the heavens cheering you on. But if your attitude is no better now than it was five years ago, God is saying, “Let’s get busy.” He’s got you on the potter’s wheel. You can pray all day long, “God, deliver me from these rude people. God, take away all these inconveniences. God, change my spouse.” It’s not going to happen. God wants you to change.

You’ve got to pass that test. Every time you pass, it will get easier and easier and easier. The truth is, God may never remove the irritation, but you will have grown to such a point that it won’t even bother you anymore. What’s happening? Your character is being developed. Your pearl is being polished.

First Peter 4:12 says, “Trials are to test our quality.” We may not like it, but trials are beneficial. They bring to light things we need to deal with. Most of the time you are tested in areas where you need to improve. For instance, if you struggle with being impatient, don’t be surprised if you get behind every slow driver out there. You will catch every red light, find every freeway under construction, and have to wait for every passing train.

God has you there for one reason: not to frustrate you, but to refine you. You’ve got to recognize that trial, that irritation, is not a coincidence. It’s a test of your quality. Are you getting upset and losing your cool like you’ve done in the past? Or are you saying, “I recognize this is an opportunity to grow. God wouldn’t have me here if I didn’t need it, so I’m staying in peace, keeping a good attitude, and passing this test.”

When you do that, you will come up higher. Anytime you pass the test, you’re headed for promotion. When Victoria and I first got married and we were about to go somewhere, I would ask her if she was ready to leave. She would say yes, so I would go sit in the car and wait and wait and wait. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. I’d get so frustrated. I’d go back in and say, “Victoria, I thought you said you were ready.”

“I
am
ready,” she’d say.

“Well, would you mind walking out to the car?” I’d ask.

This would happen time and time again. I would get so stressed. I was praying, “God, You’ve got to change her. God, make her into this. God, make her into that.”

I had her on the potter’s wheel. One day I realized I’m not the potter; God is. It’s funny, God never changed her. He used her to change me. My prayers backfired. God has a sense of humor.

Now when she says she’s ready, I know that means in general she’s ready. It’s kind of like the two-minute warning in football. The clock officially says two minutes, but you know it’s going to take fifteen or twenty minutes. When she says she’s ready now I’ll go sit down, watch TV, get something to eat, take a walk. It’s no big deal. She doesn’t realize God has used her to help develop my pearl. She’s a good irritation, though!

So often we pray for God to change the other person. “God, change my spouse, change my child. God, You have got to change my boss.” I’ve learned not to pray for God to change somebody else without first saying, “God, change me.”

A lady who attends Lakewood Church always comes without her husband. She deals with a lot of issues at home. For years she came down front for prayer. She had this list of all the things she wanted God to fix. She didn’t think she could be happy unless they all turned around. The main thing she wanted to change was her husband.

Then, I saw her one day at church and she was just beaming with joy. She was more beautiful and more at peace than I had ever seen her. I thought surely everything must have worked out. But she said, “No, Joel. My husband is just the same. He still has a lot of issues. He hasn’t changed, but you know what?
I
have changed. I don’t let that frustrate me anymore. I don’t let him keep me from enjoying my life.”

What happened? She let that irritation become a pearl. When you can be happy, not because of your circumstances, but in spite of your circumstances, then nothing can take your joy. You may be in a trial right now. That is a test of your quality.

I was in New York City a while back and I went to a little diner to eat breakfast. A gentleman sitting a couple of tables over came up and said when he’d walked into the restaurant that morning the person in front of him let the door slam in his face. This person clearly saw he was coming, but it appeared that he let go of the door on purpose.

Normally this gentleman might have told him off, but he said he’d watched my sermon on the potter’s wheel recently.

He told me: “Just when I was about to let him have it, Joel, I heard your voice saying, ‘Let it go and God will fight your battles.’ ”

He let it go and sat down to eat breakfast. When he did that, he felt a joy bubbling up on the inside like something he had never felt before. When I walked into the diner five minutes later, he said, he nearly passed out.

“I knew that was God saying He was pleased with me,” he told me.

When you pass these tests you will feel God’s sense of approval. You will feel a new joy on the inside. You will know the Creator of the universe is smiling down on you.

The Scripture says, “Our faith is tried in the fire of affliction just as fire tests and purifies gold.” Maybe you are in that refiner’s fire right now. You don’t like the situation. It doesn’t seem fair. But let me encourage you. If you will stay in faith and keep pushing forward, you will come out refined, purified, stronger, and better off than you were before.

There was once a couple who loved to shop for antiques. One day they were in this small country store when they found the most beautiful teacup they had ever seen. It was magnificent. As they admired it, the teacup began to talk.

“I haven’t always looked like this,” it said. “There was a time that nobody wanted me. I wasn’t attractive. I was just a hard lump of clay. But then this potter came along and shaped and molded me.”

The teacup told the couple that the process was painful so it said to the potter, “ ‘Hey! What are you doing? You’re making me uncomfortable. That hurts. Leave me alone.’ ”

The potter simply smiled and replied, “Not yet.

Then the potter put the teacup on a wheel and began to spin it around and around.

“I got so dizzy,” the teacup told the couple, “but after a while I had taken on a new shape. He formed me into this teacup you admire. I thought he was finished, but then he put me into a furnace. It was so hot I didn’t think I could stand it. When he came and checked on me and looked through the furnace window, he had a sparkle in his eyes. I screamed out, ‘Let me out of here! It’s too hot!’ But he smiled and said, ‘Not yet.’ He finally took me out and put me up on a shelf so I could cool off. I thought, ‘Thank goodness it’s over. Now I can go back to being my
normal self.’ But then the potter painted me, changing me from the old gray color to this beautiful blue.”

The teacup went on to tell the couple that the paint was sticky and uncomfortable. “I thought I was going to choke. I told the potter to stop, but he said, ‘Not yet.’ Then he put me into a second oven twice as hot as the first one. This time I knew it was over. I screamed, ‘I’m not kidding! I can’t take it! I’m going to die!’

“Again the potter said, ‘Not yet.’

“Finally, he opened the oven door, and put me on a shelf. A few weeks later he came by and handed me a mirror, and when I looked at myself I couldn’t believe how beautiful I had become. I couldn’t believe how much I had changed. I didn’t look anything like that old lump of clay I used to be. There was a time that nobody wanted me, but now I’m this beautiful teacup: valuable, expensive, and unique, all because of this potter. He made me into something amazing.”

That’s the way God works in all of our lives. He is changing us little by little, from glory to glory. But on the way to the glory there may be a little bit of suffering that we have to endure. There may be times we say, “God, get me off of this potter’s wheel. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t deal with this child. I can’t handle this grouchy boss.”

But God will smile and say, “Not yet.”

God sees your value. He knows what He is making you into. Sometimes when we look at ourselves we think, “I’ve got a lot of flaws. I’ve got a hot temper. I’ve got a problem with my mouth. I’m not that disciplined.” We see the clay, but God sees the beautiful teacup. The good news is you’re not a finished product. God is still working on you, and if you will work with God and let Him remove those impurities, He will make more out of your life than you’ve ever dreamed.

One day you will look back and, like that teacup, you will say, “I can’t believe how far God has taken me.”

The Scripture says, “After you have passed the test you will receive the victor’s crown of life.” My challenge for you is that you pass your test. There is a victor’s crown waiting for you. Recognize that God has you on the wheel. Don’t fight against it. Let God refine you.

Your sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that is coming. If you stay moldable, pliable, and willing to change, you won’t be at this same place next year. God will take every irritation and turn it into a pearl. You won’t be wood, clay, or silver. I believe and declare you will become a vessel of gold, a vessel of honor used for God’s highest purposes.

T
oo many people go through life thinking somebody owes them something. If they didn’t have a perfect childhood, they’re angry at their parents. If they were laid off after many years with a company, they’re upset with their bosses. Or maybe they came down with an illness. Life threw them a curve. Now, they have a chip on their shoulder and bitterness on the inside. They ask: “If God was so good, how could He let this happen to me?”

But, God never promised life would be fair. He did promise that if you stay in faith, He would take what is meant for your harm and use it to your advantage. Nothing that happens to you is a surprise to God. The people who raised you might not have given you everything you needed. It might not have been fair. But that didn’t catch God off guard.

Don’t think you were cheated and use it as an excuse to be bitter. If you get over it, God will still get you to where you’re supposed to be. The person who did you wrong in a relationship, the betrayal, or the divorce might have caused you pain, but if you get over it, quit reliving all the hurt, and move forward, then you’ll come to the new beginning God has in store.

My message is very simple and I offer it with respect: get over whatever wrongs have been done to you.

Maybe you are single and all your friends are married. Get over it.
Don’t let bitter feelings take root. That attitude will only keep the right person from entering your life.

Maybe you wish you’d been born into a different family or in a different country. Get over it. God knows what He’s doing. God wasn’t having a bad day when He created you. You are not at a disadvantage. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made.

I’ve heard it said, “You can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you cannot be both.” Instead of sitting around thinking about all the reasons you have to feel sorry for yourself, take the hand you’ve been dealt and make the most of it. Nothing that you’ve been through has to keep you from becoming all God’s created you to be.

My mother had polio as a child. She had to wear a brace on her leg. Now one of her legs is much smaller than the other. When she buys shoes, she has to buy two pairs of the same shoe because her feet are different sizes. That could have embarrassed her. She could have shrunk back and tried to hide it. But she never did.