Many people feel like their lives are out of control. You may feel this way... “I am a victim of my circumstances! What can I do? I feel powerless to change my situation. Just about the time I make ends meet, somebody moves the ends!” You walk up to somebody and say, "How you doing?" What do they say? "I'm doing ok, under the circumstances…” When I here that I want to say, “What are you doing under them?” Somebody said, "Circumstances are like a mattress. If you’ll get on top you’ll rest easy. If you get under them you’ll suffocate." A lot of people are under their circumstances. The fact is we can't control our circumstances, but we can control how we respond to them. It depends on where you are.
The fact is, everybody's got difficult circumstances. You've got them. I've got them. It's a part of life. If you don't have any problems, check your pulse. People who don't have problems are over at Mount Vernon.
Yet God wants us to live each day with confidence in spite of our circumstances. Webster defines confidence as “the state of being certain, the assurance that one will act in a right way, a relation of trust…”. That’s the way God wants us to think about Him. You learn to trust Him in spite of your circumstances.
A guy goes out mountain climbing and falls off a cliff. Part way down he grabs on to a ledge and looks down - it's 1000 feet down! He looks back up, it’s 2000 feet back up! He thinks, "How am I going to get out of this?" He starts praying, "God, please help me!" A voice from heaven comes down, "Trust me! Let go and I will catch you." He looks up and says, "Is there anybody else up there?”
You may feel like you’re hanging from a ledge today and you see no way out of your present difficult circumstances. God says, “Let go… Trust Me.” See, our real problem is what we do with our circumstances. We get under our circumstances when we try to solve them on our own power and our own strength. How do you know when you're trying to solve your problems in your own strength? You start to worry. Worry is a form of control. You get stressed out and you get sick and tired. You get sick and tired of being sick and tired! You begin to suffocate under the circumstances.
Many feel that God is upset with them when they have problems. “God must be mad at me!” But that’s not true. “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job…” 1 Peter 4:12-13 (Msg) The truth is God doesn’t cause your problems (we do a good enough job of that ourselves). He wants to help you conquer your circumstances as you trust in His love.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship…? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:35-36(NIV) This verse says "We are more than conquerors." Are you conquering your circumstances? As you put your life in God's hands and rely upon His love and power, as you let go and trust Him to care for you, nothing can devastate your life. No matter how dark the situation is, God can turn it around.
Pastor Ray
