When Circumstances Overwhelm You

There are times in my life that circumstances overwhelm. In these overwhelming moments, I panic, become anxious, and overthink. Deadlines at work, problems at home, pressures due from unmet goals, sickness, suffering, pain, broken relationships, and loss of a loved one might overwhelm us. Unwanted circumstances might burden us to despair, fear, sadness, and anxiety.

So, what do we do when circumstances overwhelm us?

The apostle Paul also found himself in an overwhelming circumstance. He was put in prison while he wrote Philippians. But amazingly, he still encouraged the readers of his letter to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” When we focus on overwhelming circumstances, we lose our joy. But when we focus on the Lord who is in complete control over our overwhelming circumstances, our hearts will be at peace. The object of Paul’s joy does not depend on the volatility and unpredictability of circumstances but his joy depends on the stability and trustworthiness of His Savior.

Brethren, this should be the case for us as well. Our God keeps us and holds us in the palm of His hand. No overwhelming circumstance can snatch us away from Him and that alone matters. He makes no mistake in allowing overwhelming circumstances to happen to us. As a matter of fact, He uses these things as tools to refine us to be more like Jesus Christ. He uses all things for our good. (Rom. 8:28) How comforting that truth is.

Let us surrender our burdens to God because we are not designed to bear the crushing weight of our burdens. Only God can do that. And He will bear our burdens and cares because He deeply cares for us. (1 Pet. 5:7) Let us cry out our pain and sorrows to God knowing He is near to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. (Psa. 34:18-19) Let us seek the peace that surpasses the understanding that God gives to those who cast all things before His throne of grace in prayer and supplication. (Phil. 4:6-7)

God does not promise a storm-free life. Rough and overwhelming storms that want to make us sink are to be expected from this sin-stained and broken world with broken people in it. Nevertheless, He promises a storm-free heart through the peace that He will give us because He is our sovereign God in complete control of whatever storms might befall us. By His almighty power, He can calm the storms. How much more are our hearts?

My Awesome Father

How amazing it is to know that I have an awesome Father. He is awesome in all His ways because He is perfect in knowledge, perfect in love, and perfect in His sovereignty.

My awesome Father is perfect in knowledge. He cannot learn because He fully knows all things. He is perfect in wisdom as well. His plans for us are perfectly good because He has perfectly planned all of it by His perfect wisdom. Our awesome Father, in His perfect knowledge, perfectly knows what’s best for us. How comforting it is to know that in the midst of everything that is happening in our lives, and even in spite of all the brokenness, pain, sufferings, trials, and heartaches, He perfectly knows what He is doing. And, as our loving Father, we are assured that He will never leave us nor forsake us and will do what’s best for us in His beautiful time.

My awesome Father is perfect in love. What comfort it is to know that my awesome Father who perfectly knows me has perfectly love me as well. He set His heart upon me even the foundation of the world. His love is not conditioned on anything that I did or will ever do. It is not based on how good or beautiful I am because I am not. He loves me always in spite of me and not because of me. What great comfort to know that I am fully known and fully loved by my awesome Father; the greatest Being in the universe; the almighty God; the Creator and Sustainer of all things. His estimation of me alone matters. Men’s opinions pale as dung in comparison to my Father’s righteous vindication of me through Christ’s perfect life, perfect death, and perfect resurrection. How amazing it is to know that my awesome Father’s perfect love assures me that He lovingly desires to do what He perfectly thinks what’s best for me. In His perfect love, He perfectly desires to give me what’s best for me.

My awesome Father is perfect in sovereignty. He is in perfect control of everything – from the largest galaxy to tiny specks of dust in the universe. Nothing moves and happens apart from His control. All events happen and are guided by His loving fatherly hand. In His perfect sovereignty, He has the perfectly absolute power to give me what’s best for me. What comfort it is that I am under my Father’s rule. He is my rock my refuge and my protector. Whom shall I fear?

As we meditate on our awesome Father in His perfections – in knowledge, in love, and in His sovereignty, may it humble us that we are merely in the foothills of the infinite incomprehensible mountain of the knowledge of God. Praise be to God that we have all eternity to undeservedly know our perfectly awesome Father. May our hearts be ignited in serving our awesome Father as we meditate upon His awesomeness.

When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

All of us have experienced something wherein we could not make any sense out of it. It is like fitting a piece of puzzle but ending not filling any gaps for that particular piece. There are lots of events that happen to us and the people around us that don’t make sense to us.

We might lose our jobs that we need to support ourselves and our family. We might suffer injury, sickness, or incapacity that render us to not to do things we are capable of doing anymore. We might experience death of a loved one in a time where his or her family need her the most – children are still too young. We might lose friendships that we thought would last for a lifetime. We might experience breakups that we thought are going the aisle. Events, circumstances, and experiences are to many to write but the point is there is always a time when life does not make sense. There is a time when we ask God, “Why did this happen to me?”

Our sinful natures want us to figure things out. We want to fully understand why things happened to us for us to find peace and realization that this is why it happened to me because this is what God has planning all along. But, the Christian life is not like that we are called to “walk by faith and not by sight”. We are not all-knowing so we could never fully know our situation, our future, and the purposes of God behind it. Nevertheless, we could rest in faith that the God who holds our future and is in control of our situation has always a good purpose in mind. If we don’t understand His plan in our lives, we can trust his heart. He is our heavenly Father who knows what He is doing with our lives and is relentless to give what would make us more and more like Him.

I really like what Eli responded to Samuel when he heard the bad news of what the Lord to Samuel. 1 Samuel 3:10-14 says, ¹⁰And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. ¹² On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

When Eli heard this bad news He just responded in 1 Samuel 3:18 that “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.” Isn’t that comforting? God is God and we are not. We are not in complete control of our lives but He is and He does things that seem good to Him. This is the essence of His sovereignty – that He does things that He wants according to the predetermined purposes that He has established. All things that happen are under His good governance. Nothing happens outside of His loving hand. And, the things that He allow ultimately point us back to how glorious He is. And if we are people who are lovers of His glory, then we would be people who would be firm in all circumstances because we know He will use it to reveal more of His glory. It is not about what we want to happen but what He wants to happen. It is not things that please us but things that seem to please Him. If we are more God-centered in the way we look at our lives then we would be more joyful and peaceful in the midst of these circumstances because we know that God is doing these things to display His glory. And as people who adore God, we really want God to be glorified and magnified above all because His glory is our joy.

His glory is our joy. His greatest glory is our highest joy. Let that sink in our minds.

So, when life does not make sense, stop finding the answers why it happened. Continue to trust in God. Let us surrender everything to Him in prayer because He knows what He is doing. In the right time, He will reveal to us through circumstances and His word why it happened. And whether we find the specific answer or not, we now know that it is for our good because that’s his promise in Romans 8:28 which says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” And the purpose is always for us to be made like Christ. And as we become more like His Son, in spite of all the things that life rob from us, we still find satisfaction because our hearts are set on God who is the Satisfier of our souls.

Sovereignty and Surrender

God is sovereign. He governs the universe. He is not just sitting in the heavens and watching us at a distance. Everything that is happening is in accordance to the plan of God. He predetermined all that will happen before it happens. (Isaiah 46:10) He already wrote the days and stories of our lives in His book before it happened. (Psalm 139:16) He carries out His plan and makes sure it is accomplished. All that are happening is just an unfolding of the plan of God from eternity past. He does all that He pleases. (Psalm 115:3) He works all things according to the counsel of His will. (Eph. 1:11) Nothing is outside of God’s control. Everything that is happening is a result of God’s working. He maybe directly or indirectly involved but He is still involved.

Even the hearts of men are in the hand of the Lord and they unknowingly do what He purposed to do. (Proverbs 21:1)

Even the most random things are under the sovereign control of God. He ultimately decides the result. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33)

Even the most unimportant creatures created by God do not die apart from God’s permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” (Matt. 10:29)

God could choose to intervene, when He does not, God is in a sense allowing things to happen. He could choose not to but if He permits things to happen then that’s His will. God is sovereign over everything including the human will but He does not violate it. He accomplishes His purposes through it. We have our intentions in our actions but God also has His intentions for allowing our actions. Ultimately, His intentions and purposes stand. Gen. 50:20 says,  “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

This is an essential and comforting truth for people who failed to get what they want, for people whose plans get interrupted, for people whose expectations did not materialize, for people whose anxiety burdens them, for people whose decisions led them to despair, and countless other things that make people burdened. I do not mean to say that we are not responsible for our choices and the consequences of our wrong decisions. What I am trying to mean is, in spite of all of that, if one is a Christian, God will ultimately use all things for our good. (Rom. 8:28) This is why the sovereignty of God is so comforting because God will use everything even worst experiences, bad decisions, and unexpected circumstances for our own good. The good that is referred to in the bible is conformity to Christ. (Rom. 8:29) We maybe just aware of 10 things that are happening to us but God is using 10,000 things to make us more like Him.

That’s why in spite of the heartache, pain, suffering, trial, and failures, it’s best to surrender everything to God because He is sovereign. Surrendering everything under the control of God knowing that He knows what’s best for us is comforting to the soul of the Christian. He does not withhold good things from us because He is also our loving Father who wants what’s best for us. That’s the beauty of surrender, we acknowledge that God is in complete control of our lives and He knows what He is doing. We rest to the fact that His plans are way better than ours because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways. We rest to the fact that things not under our control are under His.

We can surrender every worry, burden, and concerns to God because He is a loving Father who cares for us. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

He is our good Shepherd (Psalm 23:1, John 10:11) who guides us in the path of life and joy. (Psalm 16:11)

And He is our Life and our Joy.