While my daughter was home for a few days this summer, we decided to explore some local historical sites. One of the places we visited was the Parthenon. Not the real one, of course, but a replica originally built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. What most impressed me as we walked throughout the facility was the set of bronze doors at either end of the structure. Far from something you could pick up at the local home improvement store, each door measured 24' tall, 7' wide, and 1' thick. When coupled, this 14' span of bronze, ornamented with carved medallions, weighed 15 tons.

Standing before these massive doors, it struck me that the current barrier being erected in my faith journey appeared equally as impenetrable. Like an “imposing defense” (2 Corinthians 10:5 PHILLIPS Translation), fear and intimidation were aligning to block the path of willing obedience to God’s invitation to step out in faith. Instead of medallions, my "bronze gates" were ornamented with anxiety-carved question marks.

Staring at this barrier, a Spirit-whispered phrase from Isaiah 45:2 startled me. “I will break down the gates of bronze.” Repeating that Truth, I stood in awe as the 15 ton "pretension that set itself up against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV) imploded before me.

Looking up various translations of that Scripture when I got home, I was encouraged all the more. In the Amplified Bible it reads, “I will go before you and level the mountains [to make the crooked places straight]; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron” (Isaiah 45:2 AMP). The NASB uses even stronger language, “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.”

Be encouraged today. God, the Omnipotent One, promises to go first. When a mountain of impossibility stands in the distance, The Almighty One can go before us and level it! When circumstances are crooked, The Judge can go before us and straighten them out. When we sense the path ahead is going to be rough, The Lord Most High can smooth it out. When doors as impenetrable as bronze are shut before us, The Mighty One can break through them. When bars of iron are set in place to imprison us, The Deliverer can cut them down before us. Rejoice in the fact that when God goes before us, we walk into settings where He has, and is, already working! (Need some Scriptural examples that will boost your faith? Read Exodus 14 and Joshua 3!)

In the midst of your situation, rest in the assurance that God's still small voice of Truth can penetrate and obliterate any "imposing defense" that stands before you. The God who spoke to the prophet, speaks to us today. “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 NLT). Know that there is nothing – no thing – that is too difficult for God.

Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation (2 Thessalonians 3:16 NLT).