Here are some examples of spiritual break-in moments … moments where God breaks into our world and tries to get our attention.

Genesis 12:1 is a Break-in Moment for a man named Abraham. Genesis 12 [1] The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. [2] “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

In Exodus 3, there’s another Spiritual Break-in Moment. You may remember this story if you’ve seen The 10 Commandments, or The Prince of Egypt. It’s a great moment in movie history.

Exodus 3 [1] Meanwhile Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, [b] the mountain of God. [2] Then the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. [3] So Moses thought: I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up? [4] When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.

This was a Break-in Moment for Moses. He was 80 years old, and he’d never heard God speak to him personally before.

Spiritual Break-in Moments are times in our lives where God tries to get our attention. Here’s the thing, when God brings Spiritual Break-in Moments into our lives, how we respond can mean the difference between living a fulfilled life … a life full of hope and vitality …and - living a life that is without any real purpose … a life where we may just drift though without any sense of significance and meaning. And, perhaps more than anything else - to take off the spiritual blinders that we all can face at times, we need to embrace spiritual BIM’s: Break-in Moments.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

What does all of this mean for me?

It’s not disappointments that hold us back. It’s the perception of the disappointments. It’s not necessarily the pain that holds us back. It’s how we feel about the pain. Even though we’re all going to face difficulties, God is there right beside us helping to rejoice and experience inner joy in the midst of the junk.

Pain will happen but we don’t have to wallow in misery. You can’t side-step pain but you can miss out on God’s perspective of suffering, pain or disappointments - even in the midst of pain and disappointment.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

5) The ultimate answer to life’s disappointments is the hope of heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.

Today’s suffering can mean tomorrow’s glory. God is not accomplishing all His purposes today, nor is He explaining all His plans to us right now.

Hope pumps life into the inner person. Ambition is a kind of emotional adrenalin that keeps us aspiring to better and greater achievement. I’m not speaking a hope in hope or a faith in faith but a hope and faith in the Lord. We need to understand that when it comes to our dreams and aspirations for life God is not in the business of teasing us by putting a carrot on a stick permanently out of our reach. He is not some cruel master who wants us to jump like dogs, only to lift our desired dreams barely above our highest reach.

While there’s life, there’s hope. Hope in heaven is a 100% certainty … that God gives to every single follower of Christ. It’s his promise to us!

Hope in the future can keep us going. Like Job we too can say, Job 19 [25] I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. [26] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; [27] I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job knew that there was One who would redeem him from the present trouble in the future - in heaven! Death is not the final chapter in life … death is the door to experiencing the presence of God for an eternity in heaven!

1 John 5 [11] And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. [13] I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

2 Corinthians 4 [17] For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! [18] So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Romans 8 [18] Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Hebrews 10 [35] Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. … [34] You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. [35] So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I can’t do it. I have tried this. I can endure, but I can’t rejoice. And, it bothers me when I see these pious Christians who go around with a smile screwed to their faces and they pretend like they are enjoying suffering.” I don’t blame you … I get upset at this too! When Paul is talking about rejoicing in suffering he’s not talking about being excited about the suffering. Authentic rejoicing in suffering has to do with rejoicing in the hope that we have even in the midst of the suffering. What is that hope? The hope of heaven one day but also the hope that He is getting ready to enjoy heaven right now by molding us and refining us through trials and suffering.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

4) God allows tragedy and disappointment to interrupt our lives so that He can comfort us.

2 Corinthians 1 [3] All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. [4] He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Once He has helped us mend, He will bring others across our path that we can identify with and therefore comfort them. This is part of God’s strategy in maturing us. God is in the business of developing comforters. And the best comforter is the one who has been through the same pain or sorrow that we have and emerged from it a better person.

Just like Job, we might ask, “God, Why did You let this happen to me?” This may lead to an attitude which believes that God has his hands tied. To be fair, we must confess that nobody knows how many times God has intervened to stop tragedy and disaster. All we know are the times when He didn’t. God proves that He is in control, not by intervening constantly and preventing all tragedy and disaster, but by ruling and overruling them so that even tragedy ends up accomplishing His ultimate purposes.