Don’t Quit Before Your Breakthrough

You’ve heard the saying before, “it’s darkest before the dawn.” But what does that mean? Simply put, right before the morning rays of sun come bursting forth to end the night, it appears to be the darkest outside.

Isn’t that just as true for our lives? It seems like right before your breakthrough, right before your promotion at work. Right before your blessing, there is a temptation to thrown in the towel and quit.

I don’t know if this is by God’s design as a means of evaluating our perseverance, or if it’s the devil’s way to make us want to give up, so we don’t see the goodness of God. Either way what we know is it’s hard.

I recently experienced this in my own life. Some things were happening at work, I was tired and frustrated, so maybe I wasn’t thinking clearly, but either way, I was ready to walk away from a 20-year career with the company I love working with, over a disagreement.

Even worse, I had convinced myself that if I didn’t quit, they were going to fire me anyway. These are the lies that we tell ourselves. These are the lies of the enemy.

When I got a text from my leader telling me to cancel my flight to Atlanta, and show up Monday morning in Austin by 9:00 AM, I knew that was it for me. I was fully convinced they were going to terminate me on Monday.

At first, I didn’t know what to think. Should I be afraid of losing my job at a time like this? Should I let pride creep in and pretend that I don’t care? Should I go ahead and post my resume online?

These were the things running through my mind. Thank God I have a godly, praying wife. She immediately began to pray, and even petitioned the support of my mom to join with us. In a matter of minutes, I could tell things had changed.

Not that I knew the outcome would be different, but I was different. No longer afraid of “what if…?” Instead, confident in who my source is, confident in my God. I know He is faithful, and no matter what happened, me and my family would be okay.

Monday morning came, and I drove down to Austin, Texas from the DFW area. When I walked into the conference room, I was the first one to arrive. Finally, about ten minutes later others began to come in. We met for three hours that day. And you know what? Not one of my fears were realized. Everything that I thought would happen, or how the meeting would go was 100% false.

After the first meeting was over, they asked me to hang around for a second meeting. At this point I felt like everything was going to be okay. They pulled up a report and informed me that our corporate office had made some mistakes, and without going into all the details, my team and I were all going to be receiving a huge year end bonus.

Shocked by this news, I sat there in literal amazement. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, or the “but” that was sure to come… but it didn’t come. There was no “but,” there was no other shoe to drop. It was a huge blessing from God. I couldn’t contain myself, right there in that conference room in front of our President, EVP, and other coworkers I began to cry.

I wanted to quit. I wanted to walk away one day before my breakthrough. I listened to the lies that told me the inevitable was coming, so why not just quit before they fire you.

I don’t know what you’re facing today. What lies the enemy is trying to whisper in your ear. But whatever it may be, the one thing I would tell you is don’t quit. Don’t give up. You never know, you might be just like me, and be only one day away from your breakthrough.

Don’t stop short of your breakthrough. Press on. Pray until you see breakthrough.

Be blessed,

Chris Chandler