Do Your Circumstances Determine How You See God?

 "We tend to judge God by our circumstances, rather than our circumstances by who we know God is."

I heard that statement recently on a podcast I was listening to. I back the podcast up a couple minutes to listen again, so I could write it down without missing a word.

Let me say it again:

"We tend to judge God by our circumstances, rather than our circumstance by who we know God is."

Now, let me ask you what you tendency is:

Do you tend to judge God by your circumstances?

Or do you judge your circumstances by who you know God is?

It you're anything like me, there's the way you want to answer this . . . the way that you know should be true, and is sometimes. But, to be honest, we also have to admit that we the other sometimes too.

And how we answer that question has major implications for how we live and how we walk through whatever circumstances we're facing.

When we judge God by our circumstances, our response to and interaction with Him changes based on what we're facing. When things are good, God is good is loves us. When our circumstances get hard or something unexpected comes, we begin to doubt God. We wonder if He loves us. We wonder if He cares. And we begin to operate as He's unjust and uncaring. We can easily get overwhelmed and give up hope.

When we look at our circumstances through the lens of who we know God is, it doesn't remove the fact that things can be hard sometimes, or that we have questions and doubts. It means that we hold on to who we know God is in the middle of those doubts and questions. We have an anchor to hold onto in the hard times.

To see our circumstances through the lens of who God is, requires that we take the time to get to know Him. To develop a relationship with Him. Something we can lean on when things are hard and questions do come.