Praise Before My Breakthrough: A 5-Day Devotional By Bryan and Katie Torwalt

 MY HALLELUJAH – Romans 8:38-39

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I love reading passages of scripture like this one in Romans 8 and just letting it sink into my spirit. It’s such a beautiful and life-changing statement on its own, but when you think about who it was coming from, it carries that much more weight. The confidence in the love of God and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the apostle Paul had was amazing. Someone who had been in prisoned, stranded and even tortured, was so sure of this incredible love of God because he had encountered it first hand.

Very little of our life is actually spent in the heights of the “mountain top experience”, or even in the lowest of lows, but we spend a lot of time living life somewhere in the middle. The more we are able to continually press into God, no matter what season of life we are in, the stronger our foundation in His love will be. So that we are able to have that incredible mountain top encounters with God, but also lean back on God’s love and grace with confidence in the hard seasons of life.

When we wrote My Hallelujah as well as most of the songs on this project, we were in the middle of some harder seasons of life. We felt the importance of honest language both as prayers to God, but also declarations for ourselves with confidence in the goodness, kindness, and love of God. When we have encounters with God that build the foundation of His truth in our lives, we can declare with faith “nothing can take my Hallelujah, no darkness can contain my Hallelujah”

As you read through this passage of scripture, let the apostle Paul’s words sink in deep in your Spirit about the power of the love of God!

 BE WITH ME – 1 John 4:13-19

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”. I love this passage of scripture in 1 John chapter 4. When encountering the love of God, we become more and more aware of His desire to just be with us and to pour out His love on us. The Presence of God becomes a necessity in our lives, and our desire will be to abide with God and have his love and Presence abide with us.

Something that always strikes me when I read the chapters written by John, is his confidence in the Love of God. Not just a “God Loves Everyone” type of confidence, but he knew deep down inside that God loved him personally and wanted to be with him. He had so much confidence in this fact, that throughout the gospel of John you even see him refer to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved”!

When we make ourselves available and aware of the Presence of God, the more confident we become in who God is. And the more we intentionally spend time with Him listening to His voice, the more secure we become in who we are, and the fact that there nothing more or less we can do to attain or separate us from the love of God. He just loves us fully and completely and His desire is to be with us.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear!” One of the greatest hindrances to a relationship with God is fear. The fear of not being worthy of love, of not measuring up, the fear of punishment or of being exposed all keep us from being who we are truly meant to be. However, when we encounter the love of God, his perfect love begins to melt away all those fears and insecurities, until we like children who know their father can come before him confident in who we are because of who He is and what He’s done for us.

As you read through this scripture or listen to this song, let the Love of God break down more walls of fear and insecurity and let God in to abide with us!

 PRAISE BEFORE MY BREAKTHROUGH – ACTS 16:16-40

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, everyone’s bonds were unfastened”.

One of the most valuable lessons we can learn in the Kingdom is to praise before we see the breakthrough we’re looking for. 

What I love about this passage of scripture in Acts 16, is that even though Paul and Silas are arrested and in prison, there seems to be a confidence in who they know God to be. He is the same God whom they have encountered, and who they have seen heal and set people free. So as they sit in their prison cell, chains around their ankles, they begin to pray and sing hymns to God. They’re not thankful and singing praise because they are free, they are singing praise because they are confident in who God is, and that He has a plan!

The incredible part of this story isn’t just that their breakthrough came, but when Paul and Silas sang their praises, a breakthrough came to the whole prison!! It says when the earthquake shook, ALL the doors were open, and EVERYONE’S bonds were set free!!

When we worship and praise through our hard situations and dark seasons of life, the breakthrough’s that we see become an open door for the people around us to see breakthrough’s in their own lives! And the confidence we gain as we see God move in our lives turns into an authority to proclaim and see Him do it again in the lives of others.

In the next chapter as Paul and Silas go to the next city, there is a group of men that again try to arrest them, and as they condemn them they say “these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also..” (Acts 17:6). It’s so amazing that as we see a breakthrough in our own lives, the reputation and testimony of God, makes way into places we never thought imaginable.

I pray that as you read this chapter and the story of Paul and Silas, that you would be encouraged to praise in the middle of whatever season you’re in, and whatever you’re going through. Praise really is a doorway to our breakthrough, both for us and for the people around us and in our lives.

PROPHESY YOUR PROMISE – PSALMS 23

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”

This last season of life for us has been one where we’ve had to constantly battle fear and anxiety. A season where our reliance on the Presence of God and the truth of His word has become more and more real. Some of the keys we’ve found and been leaning into have been things like staying connected to a community, people we trust and love who can speak truth into situations. Processing with the Lord through songwriting, and digging deep into scriptures that speak truth over our situations and tear down lies we might be believing.

Psalms 23 has been one of the chapters that have kept us grounded in the truth throughout this process. As you read the psalms you get to see David in every part of the journey. A lot of expectation, wisdom, and a lot of processing in what seems like the middle of the journey, before everything is finished or figured out.

I love the moments where it seems like he speaks or declares over himself truth even when it doesn’t feel like he’s walking in the fullness of it. Moments like “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL” or “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”

I love the picture of God showing up in the middle of the battle, setting a beautiful table and serving a meal when we’re surrounded by the enemy. God is not stressed about the battle, He sees the outcome before the battle even began. The same thing is true when it comes to our lives. When we’re battling fear, depression, or anxiety over the hard things in life, I read this scripture and remind myself that God is with us. He shows up in the middle of the process even when we don’t fully see it. He guides us through the dark seasons, and even when we’re surrounded, God is so confident in the outcome and His goodness that He sets a table in the middle of it all. My hope is that I’m aware of what God is doing enough to see when He sets a table for me. Whether it be through the community, through a specific scripture, or just speaking truth to a moment through the bible or His still small voice.

I pray that as we read through Psalms 23, we become aware of God working for our good in the middle of our journey. Even when we don’t understand, that we would see His truth breaking down our walls and lies we’re believing and lead us into deeper trust and relationship with Him.

ARMS OF GRACE – LUKE 15:11-32

If you grew up in Sunday school like I did, or spent any amount of time in church, there’s a good chance that like me, you’ve heard a few sermons on the parable of the prodigal son. However, a little while ago I listened to a sermon where they explained this parable in the most memorable way I’ve heard it. What they were proposing was that this passage should not be called the prodigal son, but instead “the Good Father”.

There is something so beautiful about this parable when you switch your focus from the son to the Father.

I know that in some way we all can relate to at least one of the sons. The son who squandered everything, who ran away thinking of ourselves only to get taken advantage of or make poor choices. Or the son who did everything the right way, but struggles with pride or jealousy when we see grace extended to someone who didn’t work as hard as us, or doesn’t “deserve” it in the same way we feel we do.

However, when you take a step back and begin to see this story not just with the son as the focus but with the Good Father as the focal point, it becomes such a beautiful picture and insight into our Heavenly Father. With no hesitation, He gives gifts to His children even when he knows that the son in the parable, or that we in our lives probably won’t steward the gifts in the best way that we should or could. One of my favorite parts happens in vs 20, as the son was making his plan to return to the Father hoping to be hired back as just a servant. It says “ But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him”.

Not only do we have a Heavenly Father who forgives us and takes us back with no questions asked, no matter what we’ve done. or how long we’ve been gone for. He’s waiting and watching for the moment that we simply turn back towards Him, so that He can run to meet us, with His arms of grace open wide to welcome us home and embrace us.

As we live our lives and inevitably make mistakes, if we could have that image branded into our minds of the Good Father, arms open wide running to meet us, wrap us up in a hug and take us back home. That would change the way a lot of us live our lives.

I’m so glad we serve such an incredibly loving God, ready to run to us and embrace us any time we turn towards Him.