Through the years one picks up wisdom along the way. A lot of it when you’re traveling the road of suffering. I’ve learnt that many things pass through seasons. My business had good seasons, but these were often followed by hard seasons.

Relationships go through seasons when everything is going well and then seasons when things are not so good. Even in our marriages. I often wonder why the good season can’t just keep on going, but before I know it, thunder clouds threaten on the horizon

Even in our finances the seasons can quickly become hard and then you long for the seasons when there was enough money left for something nice. And with our health a new season comes knocking unannounced just like that as we sit waiting in the doctor’s rooms.

Fortunately, I’ve learnt that seasons not only have a beginning, but also an end. The suffering that we had to endure now comes to an end with the start of a new season.

And when I look back on that season and see that I am in a different place at the end of the season than where I was when it started, I realise the following: Sometimes you need a breakdown to get a breakthrough. Sometimes we’re so caught up in something holding us back that we need a shakeup to get out of it.

Philemon probably had a breakdown when Onesimus had absconded. I can just see him throwing his toys out of the cot. He probably turned to God and demanded to know what he had done to deserve this. He treated his slave well and did a lot for him and blah-blah, grumbling all the way, as we usually do when hardship hits us.

¹⁵Maybe it’s all for the best that you lost him for a while. You’re getting him back now for good—and no mere slave this time, but a true Christian brother!

However, Philemon didn’t realise this was just a season for him and his slave. Even less did he realise that when this season ended, a new one would begin. A much better one. He got a slave back who was free from the wrong deeds of the past. And that was not the only thing that he got back. He gained a brother in Jesus. He gained a friend who would do everything for him.

This is what God does so well. He can turn bad things into good ones. He knows that you need breakdowns to get breakthroughs. He also knows how to end bad seasons so that the good ones can start.

Are you experiencing such a season at the moment? Are you up to here with suffering? Are you tired of the breakdown you’re caught up in? Maybe you should ask God to stop this season and make the breakthrough appear on the horizon.

Maybe you’ve asked this often before, but ask again.

Be honest and say what you have to say and bring what you long for to God. Keep hoping and keep trusting.

Scripture
Philemon 1:15-20

Reflection
Where are you suffering?
How can God help?
Are you asking god for a breakthrough?

Prayer

Father, my circumstances are so hard and it feels as if it is never-ending. I struggle to see that a breakthrough is possible for me. Thank you for being good in creating breakthroughs. You turn difficult circumstances into blessings and make the impossible possible. Please do it for me too! In Jesus’ Name, amen.