Moving Forward With A Broken Heart | Steven Furtick

When God Calls You Forward Before You Feel Ready

There are seasons in life when we have to face a truth we don’t want to admit: things will never be exactly as they once were. We can try to recreate the past, wish it turned out differently, or keep replaying “back in the day,” but eventually we all reach that moment when we realize, “Moses is not coming back down this time.”

I’ve lived through that. I’ve wrestled with realities God is asking me to accept—not because He’s abandoning me, but because He’s moving, shifting, preparing something ahead, and staying stuck in the old would make me miss what He’s already arranged in the new.

It’s not always about changing jobs, cities, or churches. Sometimes, God wants to change the way we see the story. So many things look one way while we’re walking through them, and completely different when we look back. What we once thought was a blessing may have been a trap. What we called a tragedy may have been a blessing in disguise.

Time changes your perspective.
And God, the Author and Finisher of your faith, is still writing.

But part of His writing includes characters who exit the story.
Seasons that end.
Doors that close.
People who don’t come back.

That’s why we need more than situational faith—faith that works only when life feels good. God is a generational God, faithful across seasons, across decades, across changes. He started something in you, and what He begins… He sustains.

So don’t ever reduce yourself to “just a sinner saved by grace.”
You are someone Jesus thought was worth dying for.
You are His workmanship.
His story in progress.

Yes, Moses died.
But God didn’t.
People left you.
But God didn’t.
You lost something.
But God never lost control.

We all try to run our own lives until we finally run out of strength—and then we remember where our help comes from. God runs everything, and nothing about your age, your past, your insecurities, or your failures changes His ability to move.

But here’s the truth many of us avoid:
Sometimes God calls us forward while we still feel unfinished.

You don’t need to have everything together before you step into what God is calling you to do. You don’t need perfect faith to begin. You simply need to move.

Because if your only goal in life is to be “finished,” you would have to die to get there. As long as you’re breathing, there is more to your story.

God told Israel to mourn Moses—but only for a month. Not because their grief wasn’t real, but because their future required movement. I believe they spent those days not only weeping but searching. Millions of people looking for one leader who wasn’t coming back.

And that’s the heartbreak so many of us carry:
How do you grieve something you cannot find?
A hope that faded slowly…
A trust that broke gradually…
A miracle you stopped expecting without even noticing when…

There are losses with no graves.
And only God knows where they are buried.

Books, advice, and people can help—but only God knows the exact moment your hope slipped away, the day your faith got tired, or the hour your heart finally gave up. Only He knows where the grave is.

But He also knows when it is time to move.

Scripture says Israel wept until “the time of mourning was over”—not the feeling, but the season. Feelings don’t disappear on schedule. But God still says, “Forward.”

Not because you’re healed.
Not because you’re ready.
Not because you understand.
But because staying in Moab won’t bring Moses back.

Some seasons were beautiful, but they are gone.
Some apologies you’ll never receive.
Some people have already moved on.
Some chapters won’t reopen no matter how many times you refresh the page.

It’s over—not in a harsh way, but in a holy way.
The night has endured, but joy is at the door.
You’ve wept long enough.

Now it’s time.

Forward—with tears still drying.
Forward—with questions still lingering.
Forward—with faith still forming.
Forward—unfinished, but moving.

Because God isn’t done writing your story.
And your next chapter begins the moment you take the first step.