Jamie squeals with delight when she reads the text from her number one choice of colleges, accepting her as a student. Four years and over $100,000 later, she’s still not sure what to do with her life, moves back in with her parents, and embarrassingly hides from social media for a while.
Nathan jumps at every opportunity his job provides for a new project or possible promotion. He sees his wife and kids less often, but senses achievement nonetheless, putting in over 70 hours per week. The company is noticing him, and he loves it. But he has become estranged from his family, and his marriage ends.
Raquel stopped going to church in high school because it seemed so fake. Lots of talk about rules, with little action about love. Too much ritual, too little Jesus. Later in life, a friend invited her family to church on Easter Sunday. They decided to try it—but just for the egg hunt and fun children’s ministry. The divine touch of God’s Word rejuvenated something in her soul that day, and the resurrection of Jesus woke her up spiritually.
We tend to define our lives by the circumstances of the moment. When we do, life becomes shallow, flat and scattered without a clear purpose. Because circumstances change. Heaven does not.
When we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we know with 100% certainty that we are alive spiritually and forever. Even when we die someday physically, our soul never dies but continues to live in heaven. Forever (John 11:25,26).
You can live above your circumstances, not as a casualty of them, when you are more defined by eternity in heaven than by the “now” of the situation. Rather than what is going on in the moment capturing your attention, the certainty of heaven holds your attention steady and firm. Undistracted. Clearly defined.
Difficulties don’t define you. God’s promises do. Disappointments don’t define you. God’s promises do. Fear doesn’t define you. Guilt doesn’t define you. Busyness doesn’t define you. Loneliness doesn’t define you. God’s promises do.
God’s promises remind us that our lives might be out of our control, but they are not out of his control. Heaven redirects and refocuses us to be centered again in the divine realties already accomplished by Jesus Christ.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
PRAYER: Jesus, you make a difference in my life more than my circumstances. When life seems out of my control, it usually is, but it is never out of your control. Your resurrection proves that you rule over my circumstances, and promise me life now and new and forever. Help me believe that today. Amen.
QUESTION: Which circumstances convinced you most recently that they were in charge of your life? What is your first step to regroup and rally around the truth?
