GOD’S LOVE IS NOT MEASURED BY YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE

(A series in the book of Isaiah: Isaiah 43)

I grew up thinking that when my circumstance is good, God is with me. When my circumstance is bad, maybe I am not good enough, maybe I did not pray that hard or did my devotional that well. When a bad circumstance comes to me, it is always because I did not please God. It was a pretty tough mindset. I bore it for many years. I was filled with fear and feeling of not being enough with my religious practices so I prayed harder, did my devotional harder, and even fasted more seriously. I didn’t know it was like buying from God His favors for me. I needed to be good and perfect enough for His scepter of blessing to touch my head and I get His approval.

Entering the Seminary opened my mind to the reality of who God really is. God is not a pagan god. He is not pleased with your performance and He does not require performance. For you to perform to earn something from His not a Biblical reality of God. Why? Because God already even loved before we were all were born and had given us all we needed even before we were conceived. He even has already paid the price for our salvation even before we have sinned. He is not the kind of God that I have Him in my mind.

My circumstance is not orchestrated by God, why? Because He allows me to function as a free moral agent. I have the freedom to choose and God does not govern over my freedom to choose. What God is doing is that He will guide us to the principles of life—Godly principles of life. If we submit our will to God, the Holy Spirit quickens our understanding of those spiritual principles that will guide us to decide by the right principles. Deciding to be a nurse or to be a teacher is not about God’s will. Either way, you choose as long as you stay connected to God and your heart is to serve Him and make known His character and love through your chosen profession then you can take whatever you find God has given you as a gift. Deciding by your spiritual gift is one principle that God uses for us to stick on principles. But ending up as a garbage collector or a CEO company is not the circumstance that God looks at. Life is not just as black and white as I had always seen it was to be. Life is complicated and our only way to understand our circumstance is in God’s eyes and guidance to our circumstance.

What God promised is not our circumstance but His presence. Circumstance does not dictate His presence or not. It is His promise and covenant that dictates His presence. Isaiah chapter 43 in its opening verses gives us these arguments of God’s promised presence.

But now, this is what the Lord says—

he who created you, Jacob,

he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I give Egypt for your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your stead.

4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,

and because I love you,

I will give people in exchange for you,

nations in exchange for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west.

6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’

and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

7 everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

Friends, my life has changed since my eyes are not anymore on my circumstance but on the promise that God promised His presence and this promise will never be moved even by my failures.