Have you ever looked around yourself and wondered how in the world you got in the circumstance that you are in? Your stuck in a dead-end job, having financial issues, living in a house that is in bad need of repair, having marital problems etc. Your thinking, I love God and believe that Christ died for my sins and I have asked him into my life. Now why in the world am I living in the state that I am in? Someone said that getting saved was a great thing but I am just not seeing it!
Circumstance is actually two words; circum- meaning to encircle and stance- meaning to stand. In other words, when you are going through hard times you are encircled by what is happening to you. What you tend to see is the circumstances around you and not past that. It doesn't take long to start having feelings of being overhwelmed and feeling desperate!
Proverbs 13:12 states that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."
Circumstance is actually two words; circum- meaning to encircle and stance- meaning to stand. In other words, when you are going through hard times you are encircled by what is happening to you. What you tend to see is the circumstances around you and not past that. It doesn't take long to start having feelings of being overhwelmed and feeling desperate!Proverbs 13:12 states that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."
Hebrews 11:1 states, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."
If the enemy can get you to lose hope then he can get you to stop living by faith. Isolation is a dangerous thing and when all you can see is the bad and the negative around you and you no longer see things in faith and through the glasses of hope...well you are on a slippery slope.
Your circumstances are natural things that are important but are very temporary. In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers explained that not everything that happens to us as Christians makes human sense. "To turn head- faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to exercise our faith."
So God wants us to take ourselves outside of the circle of defeat and see the bigger picture. If you are not including God and what the word says in your daily struggles then you are living life on your own terms. God wants to be in your surroundings whether they be good or bad. He wants to use the tough times in your life so that you will learn to call out in faith and trust in Him.
In every hard time I have been in there has always been that moment where the light bulb came on & I had that "aha" moment. I would say, "ohhhhh that is why that happened!" It is so much easier after you have been through a thing to see that God was guiding you every step of the way. God wants us to follow Him even when we do not feel His presence or see where the next step your supposed to take will be.
So take that circle that you have around yourself that gives you a limited view and create a bigger space to include the God who loves you and wants you to succeed in everything you do.
Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
Adjust that Crown,
Jonna
*This blog is written by Jonna Gibson for "Invisible Crown". You can follow it at Jonna-invisiblecrown.blogspot.com
