As we live each day it is easy to become engulfed in day-to-day issues. This list can be extensive; health, financial, marriage, raising children, job-related issues, loneliness, depression, anxiety, etc. It can be one or more of these issues, all operating at the same time. These situations can become so overwhelming that we think that God just does not care. It is as if we believe that God is no longer ministering to us each day. Sometimes we may feel like David who said; “O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest.” (Psalm 22:2; NASU) This feeling can cause us to approach life on our own which is something Satan would love for us to do, and become self-centered and self-serving. Our prayer life can be a true testimony of this because all we pray about becomes about us. Unless God removes the issues, we experience our commitment to serving Him, walk with Him faithfully, worship Him with a contrite spirit becomes too much time and too great a demand.

It requires faith to believe God can use the present to determine the future (James 1:2-4). It takes faith to believe that God is in control of our present circumstances and we do not need to be anxious and can give God thanks for all things (Philippians 4:4-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). This is the reason God states in Hebrews 11:6 that it is trusting Him in the present and having faith in Him for things not seen that leads Him to reward us powerfully. If Daniel complained about the lion’s den, a nation would not be saved. If Nehemiah became overwhelmed by his problems, he would not have fulfilled the vision to rebuild the wall. If Joseph complained about being in jail his family would have all died and God’s vision to create a nation would have had to come from a different source. When Elijah complained and ran God developed a new source to bless His nation (Elisha; 1 Kings 19). When our present circumstances dictate our future, our future will always be
our present.

This year we need to learn to look at our circumstances as a means of experiencing God (Philippians 4:4-19). This causes us to learn how God fights for us so that instead of experiencing the weight that troubles tend to create we learn to “do all things through Him who strengthens us.” (Philippians 4:13). We can become even more productive fulfilling what God has maintained our lives to accomplish. We can build a legacy because our troubles become hurdles in a race rather than mountains that seem impossible to climb. “fear the LORD, you His saints; for to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.” (Ps 34:9-10; NASU) Allow this year to be a year where nothing prevents us from fulfilling the will of Him who sustains us (Ephesians 5:15-21).