Many times throughout life we have believed that if our circumstances were different… I would be different, for that reason we have lived resentful, hurt, burdened because we consider that circumstances do not favor us. In the same way we have chosen to feel victimized by circumstances and we have blamed them for our actions.
This is precisely what the world is trying to teach us; it has become very fashionable for the different “experts” to analyze people’s lives and find justification for the different personality problems that people present: attention deficit, homosexuality, drug addiction, machismo, prostitution, adultery, etc., making it seem that many of the people who suffer from these “problems” are so because of circumstances. If circumstances make us what we are, then we are all victims of circumstances.
The truth is that circumstances do not make us who we are. They merely reveal what we are. The world wants to convince us that the only way we can be different is if our circumstances change. But God says we are responsible – not for the failures of others, but for our own reactions, decisions and our own lives.
The apostle Paul learned that he could rejoice and be content and fruitful in any circumstance, because his joy and well-being did not depend on his circumstances but on God’s love and faithfulness and the condition of his relationship with God. That is why he could say:
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want”.
Philippians 4:11-12 (NIV)
Paul understood that we may not be able to control our circumstances, but our circumstances do not have to control us.
The truth is that we can trust a wise, loving and sovereign God to control every circumstance in our lives. Joy, peace, and stability come from believing that every circumstance that touches our lives has first been filtered through His loving fingers and is part of a great and eternal plan which He is forging in this world and in our lives.
God bless you!