Connecting God To Everything
Perhaps you didn’t sign up to still be single or walked out on as a spouse and left as a single parent. Maybe you didn’t sign up for a miserable relationship or to be stuck in a job that brings you no satisfaction and barely pays your bills. It could be that you are in a difficult health situation or have lost a loved one, and you are sitting there saying, “I didn’t sign up for this. This is not how I wanted my life to be.” Despite believing God, asking God, calling on God, and looking for God to make a move, you are still stuck wondering when you will arrive at your destiny.
If this is you, what I want you to know as a believer in Jesus Christ is this—you have a destiny. Oftentimes, you are closer than you think. Pass the test. Don’t throw in the towel. Respond rightly to wrong treatment. Do good. Defend the defenseless. Honor God. Grow in faith. Trust. Wait. And before you know it, your destiny suddenly will be upon you. Yes, those things are often difficult to do, so remember this: As you meander through the detours toward your destiny of living out your divine design, the thing that will allow you to keep going despite life’s circumstances is knowing that God truly is in control. God’s providential hand will work it all out for good when you trust Him fully in your heart and actions.
The secret to Joseph arriving at his destiny is that he understood and accepted the providence of God. He didn’t give God the cold shoulder when things went bad for him. He remained close to the Lord, despite the darkest of days. As a result, God stayed close to him too. While in the deepest pit of jail, the Lord was with Joseph.
While serving the basest of people in the prison system, God caused all that Joseph did to prosper. While living as a slave in the house of a high official, the Lord blessed Joseph’s hands. Even when Joseph finally made it to stand before Pharaoh, and if ever there was a time for self-promotion in order to maneuver his way out of the dungeon, Joseph deferred to God in all things. Now, with God’s track record of allowing Joseph to suffer a significant amount in his life, do you think it might have been understandable for Joseph to be shy about continuing to lean on God now that things finally started to look good?
But, he wasn’t shy. Joseph immediately connected himself with God during what may have seemed like his only method of escape out of a life in prison. “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer” (Gen. 41:16).
If you take God seriously, you can never be a victim of your circumstances. Your circumstances wouldn’t be your circumstances without God allowing them. If Satan is able to remove your consideration of God within the circumstances and direct your attention to questions, doubt, or resentment—particularly if it is a negative circumstance—he has succeeded in adding more delays to your detours.
Should Satan remove your trust and keep God out of the equation of your understanding of your circumstances in life, you will lose perspective of His providence. When you do, you will also run the risk of prolonging your detours as He continues to teach you lessons of faith and trust.
Prayer: Lord, You truly do have control over all things—even the things that don’t make sense, don’t feel good, or seem to be disappointments in life. I want to please You in my responses to these things. Give me a greater awareness of Your providence so that my responses to life’s detours are in alignment with Your rule over all. In Christ’s name, amen.
Excerpted from Tony Evans, Detours Bible Study. © 2017 Lifeway Press. Used by permission.
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