By Chris WittsTuesday 8 Oct 2013Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Remember that when God says NO to your situation,He always says YES to you. He will always provide you with increased power and strength to endure the difficulty and an increased sense of His presence to give you peace. . It’s just a fact of life that God is not going to remove all the hopeless circumstances from our lives. This is not an indicator that God doesn’t love us. It’s just an indicator that we live in a very fallen and disappointing world. All the more reason why we need Him. Sometimes God allows brokenness to continue so we can experience His closeness ..Sometimes He allows us to experience extreme weakness so we can experience His supernatural strength. You may not understand how it works,but the Bible says we can depend on it.
God may not change your hopeless situation today,but He is ready to move in your life. He may be saying no to your circumstances,but He is saying yes to you.
When God doesn’t change the situation,He will change you .
God will never waste the hopeless situations or/ pain we go through in this life. Paul says in Philippians. 1:6 “And I am certain that God,who began the good work within you,will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (NLT)
Despite what is going on in your life,God is at work within you. There is a work He started and He is committed to seeing it completed. We must remember that God is always more concerned with our character development than He is with our circumstances… More concerned with character rather than comfort.
Surrender is our response to God knowing that He is in charge. We choose to surrender our lives to him in the circumstances. It means saying to Him ..”My life is Yours” – Acceptance is our response to agree to walk with God through whatever situation we are in. We accept the circumstances…that doesn’t mean to say we like them. Obedience is the result of the first three. We continue to walk in obedience to His word regardless of the circumstances ..
I am sure the prayer by the Apostle Paul is helpful for yourself and all those people you know who struggle with hope. Rom. 15:13 “I pray that God,the source of hope,will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (NLT)
How do you react to distressing circumstances in your life?
If you take a look at the NT book of Philippians,you would quickly see,Paul’s circumstances could not have been worse … It would have been easy for him to get down. Wherever he went,a group of highly motivated individuals trailed behind seeking to smear his motives and tear down his preaching. He had been constantly subjected to persecution and mistreatment. Now,false charges had landed him in a Roman prison cell. It would have been so easy for Paul to have become very bitter and angry. Instead of going the easy route,Paul chose to rise above his circumstances. So must we.
There are many things we deal with in life. We face financial burdens,family conflict,church conflict,and instability in our career. These circumstances can lead to discouragement. How will we react? Trust in God’s providence. We are not in control of everything. God is. He orchestrates everything to accomplish His purposes. Romans 8:28 says so..” And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose. Paul’s life had a quiet calm about it. This is a trait we need. If we truly believe God orders all circumstances to accomplish His holy purpose,then we should live in trust,because everything is in control. I know that’s not an easy attitude to have.
Remember you are sustained by Divine Power. No matter how hard life is,you have a spiritual undergirding. You are attached to the One who is all sufficient. We are inseparably linked to Jesus’ life and power. Give God control and trust Him no matter what. When you trust Him to give you the strength to get through,you’ll be amazed at the good attitude you possess. And others will be amazed as well.
God’s knowledge is unlimited. Our mind is so limited that we can’t even understand what it is to
say that God’s knowledge is unlimited. He knows the past,He knows the present,and He knows the future…whereas we don’t know what lies ahead tomorrow or next month.
We should be thankful that there is no limit to God’s power.
He can do anything he wants except,of course,contradict himself.
He cannot contradict his own nature or his own attributes. He’s not like a man that He can lie. He cannot sin. These things would contradict who He is.
But He can do anything He wants. Job came to know this. In Job 42:2,he says,”I know that You can do everything,and that no thought can be withheld from you.” In other words,there is no such thing as an impossible situation with God. And we can always be thankful for that. God doesn’t change. In fact,it is recorded in Malachi 3:6, For I am the LORD,I change not.
I can also say that God is a God of love. In fact,the scripture says that God is love,describing his very nature. That’s who He is–God is love. But why God loves us is to me the mystery. I believe we must take it back all the way to creation–God loves us because we are his creation. We are made in His image.