Seasons come and seasons go. The world keeps on turning and years pass. This is the way it is with life. We look upon some years as wonderful and others as challenging, perhaps filled with disappointments. All of us experience times of unwelcome circumstances. We are left wondering when will my circumstances allow me to bear fruit and enjoy some normalcy in life. However, be aware that before God changes our circumstances, he often uses our circumstances to change us. It is like pruning branches to reap a greater harvest.
Martha Washington said, “I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” It is reassuring to know that God has promised to deliver us from our troubles, but not necessarily on our schedule or in the way we think. He wants to do more than just deliver us; despite our circumstances in life, God wants to develop each of us into a better person.
There is a biblical story about the Israelites traveling to get to a place that God had promised them. To get there, they had to go through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and through the Jordan River. They experienced brokenness, loss, grief and many other tragedies. They went from strength to strength. Scripture says that God said to the people “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the river, they shall not overflow.” God doesn’t work in minutes, hours, and days; he works in seasons because he knows how to bring us through our circumstances and refine us with the next and the next and the next circumstance.
Biblical scriptures speak about God as the potter who knows how long the clay must stay on the wheel to become a thing of value, beauty and usefulness. Trust God. He knows what he is doing. Be patient during these uncertain and stressful times. When you get through this experience, you will look back and thank him. Speaking to a group of students in 2009, Michell Obama said, “although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.”
Remember your circumstance is a pruning process; so Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Chaplain Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
