‘Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by
saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant
and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can
be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer
meeting. It is unnecessary to change and
arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and
unblemished. He was at home with God
wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek,
submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how
amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch
in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with
Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).’
CHAMBERS
James
4:13-15 ‘Come now, you who say, "Today or
tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell,
and make a profit"; (14) whereas you do not know what will happen
tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little
time and then vanishes away. (15) Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do
this or that."
Si
Bondye Vle – ‘If the Lord wills’. I hear
that often among Christians here in Haiti.
I almost typed “Haitian Christians” but corrected myself. You see .. since we are ‘new creatures in
Christ’ (2
Corinthians 5:17). We are Christians
… first … everything else about is secondary … all of the natural distinctions
are subordinate to who we are in Christ .. 1 John 3:1
‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we
should be called children of God!
Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.’ .. now back to the main point …
I find that I often want to define my
circumstances … what would make me happy?
Give me peace? Conquer my fears
or worries? Then I find myself
orchestrating my circumstances … yes like a conductor of an orchestra … so that
the music played will be to my satisfaction. And look out buddy if someone
misses a note or is out of tune …. Does
that sound like you a little bit? Does it
ever work? Do you find peace? Are your
fears conquered? Or do you find that when one is beaten down, another one rises
up? Do you sometimes think, “People
wouldn’t be so bad if they just did what I wanted them to do.”?
Paul said the he had learned to be content in no
matter what circumstance he found himself in.
(Philippians
4:10-14) Contentment is not found by
controlling my circumstances .. it is found by trusting God. (Proverbs
3:5,6) A great picture of this is when the disciples were on a boat with
Jesus in Matthew
4 The boat is sinking and Jesus is
sleeping. You would have thought those
guys would have had a ‘clue’. Look at
Jesus .. if we were going to drown, why would He be sleeping .. oh, maybe because
we are not going to drown. We are
looking at our circumstances in terms of our capacity to control them … and our
conclusion? We are done … stick us with a
fork! But God … those are two of the
most powerful words in the Bible … But God was in control … they just need to
trust Him … ‘He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it
was completely calm.’ (v 26)
And so … how about you … are you looking at the
storms of life .. thinking, all hope is lost .. or are you looking to Jesus ..
the source of Hope! The darker the
night, the brighter the light. (Who said that? I did) Let your light shine in your
circumstances today .. and bring glory to God.
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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