Long have I sought to consider myself in the group of people with no strife.  But why?  For it seems that this is just as the idle hope that nothing ever changes, rain doesn’t fall on parades and time stands still for them in bad health.  This is the life that the Lord has given me.  This is the family into which I have been born and raised.  These are the circumstances with which I must find my way to contentment.  If I truly trust God, having continually petitioned Him through prayer to change my situation and He in His Sovereign Authority has not, then I must assume that this is the crucible of my remaking.  If He isn’t changing it then I am the object of His intended transformation.

It provides me no benefit other than frustration and bad relation to fight against the determined winds of God’s erosive works.  Wanting my wife, my children, family, job, friends or finances to transform is a natural tendency within my self-determination.  However, I serve God’s Purpose and accepting this fact is the pivot point to my own transfiguration.  What if, I suddenly appreciated my Wife’s constructive comments as God ordained, intended for my polishing, improvement or rewire?  How would my life change if I saw ever opportunity from the perspective of its potential to bring me closer to God or reshape me toward His likeness?  How would my happiness quotient trend if I were to truly believe that this moment, this day, this situation is exactly what I need to get to where God wants me?

Just because I am challenged by my situation or seek the ease of comfortable living does not diminish the perfectible qualities of my predicament.  I must assume that God knows better than I ever will.  He gave me these people for my edification, this poverty or plenty for my betterment and this health so that I might glorify His Will through faith and testimony.  He also gave us this abominable status of a world that was intended for peace and perfection as a response to our inability to humble ourselves, believe and be set free from the sin of man’s historical disobedience.  We must assume, though His Word clearly corroborates that there is a time line by which time we must come to grips with this reality.  I recommend that we all accept those circumstances against which we have traditionally wasted our time, thought and energy in fruitless struggle.  This is the day that God has made, I shall rejoice and be glad in it.

I must then assume that my life will change significantly if I welcome the criticism of those whom love me, spend my wealth in a way that honors Him and steward my health, imagination and time to serve something other than my own self-honoring wishes.  Thank you Lord God for my circumstance, let me use it wisely through wisdom and new found perspective.  In Jesus’ Name.