I woke up this morning with a writing I had sent out last year on my mind.
I have been thinking a lot about crossing over to the other side this week, in doing so, this story came to mind and I felt the need to share this with you again. I hope you enjoy revisiting this story as I believe it is time for many of us to cross over to another place in God….if that’s you, don’t allow fear to hinder you from crossing over.
I want to share a story with you today, a story of fear, a bridge and the blessing on the other side.
My daughter, Breanne, has been wanting to trade her SUV for a truck for a few months now. She has looked and looked for something in her price range, she has even driven several trucks locally but had not found the one she wanted yet. Many things had to fall into place for her to walk away with what she wanted. She continually prayed ‘God if this is not what you have for me, don’t let it work out.’ Time and time again, it didn’t work out.
This past weekend she asked me to go with her to a town a couple hours from us to look at a truck she saw online. I told her I would go and we planned our trip, although it may not seem like a long trip, with two small kids, planning is a must. We left bright and early Saturday morning. Everything was going smoothly and we were minutes away from our destination. We came around a curve in the road when Breanne saw something up ahead that caused her to literally stop in her tracks. As Breanne pulled off the road, I was not sure how this trip would end.
You see, Breanne has a fear of bridges, especially bridges that are really high up and over water. Before you judge, she has overcome a tremendous amount of fear over the past several years, and she will overcome this one, but it wasn’t going to be that day. I knew this was not something she could control, it was not something you could talk her into or talk her through, it was something God was going to have to work out of her, therefore I didn’t say much to her other than, ‘I think you can do it Bre.’ She said ‘No, I can’t Mom.’
Now, as for me, I don’t love bridges either, especially high ones AND I hate driving her SUV, it is so much bigger than anything I ever drive and the brakes are tricky. All this was going through my head as she was having a meltdown on the side of the road. If all that wasn’t enough, there was construction on the bridge and it was going several different directions with sharp curves, I have never seen sharp curves on a bridge before, yet here they were on this long, long bridge.
We sat parked for a short time and then I said ‘okay, move over.’ I got behind the wheel, moved the seat up as far as I could and began to drive across this bridge that neither of us wanted to cross. In her vehicle and with the road construction I had very little room to cross that bridge, I certainly didn’t have any room to spare, but I pushed the gas and began to sing ‘Holy Spirit, you are welcome here!’ Breanne looked down into the floor and we drove across the bridge.
We arrived at the car dealership, Breanne drove the truck she had found in her price range, but she didn’t like it. Oh my! Then she saw another truck, the same model but newer and out of her price range by several thousand dollars. Initially, she wasn’t even going to look at it or drive it, but she did and she left with that truck and paid exactly what she had prayed to pay for it. God was good to her that day!
As I drove home with her, in her nice truck, I began to think about that bridge and how if we had not crossed that bridge, she wouldn’t have laid hold of this blessing that God had prepared for her. And it truly was a blessing! It was exceedingly abundantly above all she had asked or prayed, but if she had stopped on the other side of that bridge, she would have missed that blessing.
Through the night I would think about that and how that bridge represented fear and that fear tried to keep her from what God had for her and I wondered how many people stop, just moments from their blessing because of fear, or some other obstacle in their way.
I looked up the word bridge to find its meaning, I want to share that with you today; a structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle, a time, place, or means of connection or transition.
I wonder today, for many of you who are standing in faith for your blessing or your place of destiny, is there an obstacle, or a fear or depression that is between you and what God has for you? If so, what are you going to do about it?
It reminds me of the story in the Bible where Jesus told the disciples, ‘we are going to the other side.’ Let’s look at that.
Mark 4:35-39 says; “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
In this situation it was a storm, but it may not be a storm for you, it may be fear of the unknown. It may be oppression or depression, or some other thing that is stopping you from getting to the other side. I am writing today to say ‘don’t let obstacles or fear prevent you from reaching your God-given destiny or prevent you from laying hold of the blessings that God has for you.’
Many people never experience the fullness of financial blessings of God because they are afraid. They are afraid to tithe because they fear they won’t have enough or they are afraid to give because they fear they will run out of money – sadly, until we trust God with our money, he can’t bless us financially.
Some people are afraid to trust God with their children, especially when they are grown and living away from home. They pray in fear, confess in fear and do all kinds of things to try to get their kids where they feel they should be, when all along God is saying, just as he said to the disciples that day “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
We all have an area where we find it difficult to trust God completely. Especially if we have experienced disappointment in those areas in the past.
Many of us don’t trust God with relationships, we stay on the defensive and declare ‘they are not going to hurt me, I won’t let them.’ When all along, God has our back and will not allow a weapon formed against us to prosper, if we only trust him.
It’s funny to me that we trust God with our eternal salvation yet struggle to trust him with our money, our kids, our relationships and even with small fears, like bridges over water.
Today, I encourage you to examine your heart, imagine in your heart, your bridge, the place of transition, between where you are now and where you want to be OR between what you have now and what you want to have…what is standing between you and that place? Will you trust God and cross that bridge, that place of transition? What is causing you fear and what are you going to do about it?
I remember Joyce Meyer saying ‘do it afraid’ and sometimes you have to do just that. Sometimes you have to say ‘God, I don’t know about this, I don’t feel courageous, but I am going to put ALL my trust in you and do it afraid.’ And then move forward. Cross that bridge and get to the other side, just like he said you would. After all, you have a blessing, or perhaps a destiny awaiting you, already prepared for you….go get it!
