What are broad places? Swedenborg tells us that in terms of measurement, height relates to the desire for good and breadth relates to the knowledge of truth. Following that, something that is “broad” has a great capacity for truth, and a “broad place” or “broad land” is one where a large amount of truth can be learned and understood, one where a mind can expand.
Swedenborg is right on! It should be no surprise to us then to understand and clearly comprehend that God's desire is to bring us and lead us to all truth. God, who created our innermost being, knows the capacity of our mind, heart, and being. He constantly wants to reveal His truth in our lives.
We cannot follow a God that we don't know. Imagine marrying someone you don't know, nor care to know, just so that you are married. How many marriages are like that? Sad to say, way too many. How many times have we heard, "I didn't know this about this person"?
Well, we, too, can know that there is a God, but we don't know this God we worship. Sad to say, many people go to a place of worship, but they don't know who this God that they worship truly is. It's all about traditions and rituals. Fearful that if they don't meet these expectations, God will not bless them. God is not about traditions and rituals. He is all about truth and sin. He's a relational God.
God wants us to know Him. He wants us to understand who He is and what He's capable of doing in our lives. He wants to expand your places, to bring you into broad spaces of understanding and living a life that is blessed. We cannot expect to live a life of blessings without obeying His laws, and they are not many; Ten rules to follow, the Ten Commandments. Are they really that hard to follow? Even heathens don't like to be cheated, lied to, and murdered. Let's get real. Who here wants people to use them, hurt them, steal from them, or lie to them? Can we at least agree up to here? Mostly, who wants their spouse to cheat on them? I venture to say that at the very least, no man or woman wants their spouse to cheat on them.
Too often people perceive the blessed life to be a trial-free, no pain, no hurts, no temptations life. This is not true. We paint a picture of a Santa Claus God, and then our expectations are crushed when something bad happens in our lives. God promises over and over that He will be with His people in their troubles, and He promises to deliver them from all trouble. In the worst of trials, He is there. He uses the bad and ugly, and He turns our mourning into joy.
Yes, God blesses, and God still allows things to happen to who we think are good people. It's called the sovereignty of the all-knowing, all-seeing God. He is a healer and restorer; He upholds us with His righteous hand. We are safe in His hands no matter what.
This is why God brings His children to "broad places." Places of understanding. Great places of understanding and truths are learned also in the hardest and most testing trials of our lives. Expanding our minds to truths that we wouldn't have known without the trials. Allowing the fire to purify and cleanse our soul. Pure gold is what He's after.
God reveals truth to those who truly follow Him. He increases their paths and plans, and He blesses them regardless of joy, sorrow, pain, or no pain. Every breathing moment is a moment of greatness in the eyes of God.
Something to ponder today, do we know God as we should know Him? If you're married or planning on marrying, do you want a spouse who you can rely on? A spouse who loves you unconditionally and wants to build a life with you? God is the same way. He desires to love you, help you, and bless you. Even vows say, "in sickness until death do us part." Imagine a God that vows more than just in sickness. He goes beyond death! For those who love Him and gave themselves to Him, He will bring them into Heaven when their days are over on earth.
Ask God to show you the broad spaces that He wants to bring you to. Places of truth. Places of vision. Places of greatness. Places where only God shines, and you diminish. Places of revelations and expansions of mind, heart, and soul.
Yes, folks, this is the God I serve. The reason I share so much on Facebook of what He has done for me and my family. He's a God that has led me to broad places. Those places were to understand who He is and truths about His love, faithfulness, and greatness. Fully understanding His expansion of what He created for me to do on this earth. Purposes that I didn't even understand myself until I fully gave my everything to Him. My heart, mind, soul, my very life to Him. He wants to do the same for you. Don't miss knowing your broad places and don't miss out in life. It's not all a bowl of cherries and cream, but it's an adventurous, exhilarating, amazing, unpredictable, passionate, filled with surprises, and at times a supernatural kind of life. I love my life, and it's not pain or trial-free. It's a life lived with evidence of who God is and what He's done in the midst of the trials. I say it again, I love my life because it is filled with God's moments of victories and miracles.
I pray that you find for yourself this God I speak about. He's waiting to bless you and bring you to "broad places," too.
Rev. Dr. Teresa Allissa Citro
Founder and President