945 Just Stay Connected

The nature of God is loving towards his children. Without fail, his intention is to draw us in to him, and direct us toward the good works he planned for us long ago. However when life gets hard, circumstances are unfavorable, and the future becomes uncertain, we may begin to question God’s nature towards us. Why does it seem like he is punishing you? Why is he withholding goodness from you? Why is he delaying his provision, answering with a no, and absent in your storm? Our mistake is viewing God’s nature through the lens of our circumstances instead of viewing our circumstances through the lens of God’s nature. Which comes first? Which is in charge? Which determines the other? If we put the power in our circumstances, it’s easy to believe perhaps God is indeed that angry, white bearded man sitting on a throne, ready to strike. When circumstances are our lead, and things go terribly wrong, that must mean God’s nature towards us is unfavorable, harsh, or distant. But, when we shift the power towards God’s nature first, all things flow from an unstoppable love that is not swayed by circumstances. A love that weathers the storm. We see and understand that God is sovereign. He is not shaken by the unfolding of this moment, because he already holds every moment there will ever be in his hand and he knows how they all fit together perfectly. When you’re staring down your current circumstances, you fail to see everything else there is. You don’t see how God is still holding the whole world together. You don’t see how he is still breathing his life into your lungs. You don’t see how he has always brought you through everything that has ever threatened you and you have a 100% survival rate so far. You just see your hardship, your struggle, your hurt, your worry, and you become like Peter who went from walking on water with Jesus to sinking in the waves, all because you took your eye off God and became overwhelmed in your circumstances. Can you shift your perspective today? Can you begin looking at your circumstances through the perspective of God’s loving nature? Can you see how God has given mercy and grace here? Can you see how he has strengthened you to get through this? Can you see how he has provided in supernatural ways? Can you see how he may be planning to use even this for something good in the future? Yes, he IS planning to use this for something good in the future. No doubt, that is his exact plan. You may not see it now, it may not make sense to you here, but one day, this will be used for something good. My husband lost his father to suicide nearly 20 years ago. It was the most devastating thing he had ever experienced. But what he didn’t know then, is God would use it for good in his life. He would use that extreme loss and hardship to forge a fiery passion within him to help others stop the drift of a life of regret and come back to the life God intended for them before it’s too late. I have no idea how many lives he’s positively impacted, but I bet one day in heaven he will have a line of people there to tell him what a difference he made. Circumstances were unbearably hard, and if God’s nature were to be viewed through those circumstances, it would be easy to assume God was cruel and distant. A simple shift to see those circumstances through the lens of God’s nature first, we can see how God took the harm that was intended by the enemy, and he used it for good, and he still is. Jeremiah 17: 7-8 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”