Father knows best

This morning, when you woke up, were you happy with the circumstances of your life? Wow, you say...that's a monumental question to ask...who wakes up thinking oh, my life is just wonderful...I'm happy with things exactly as they are...I wouldn't change a thing? No one I know wakes up that way! Most people wake up thinking about all the responsibilities and challenges they will face throughout the day. Many people are burdened by financial pressures, health issues, family problems or other weighty woes. As creatures of the human race, we are naturally predisposed to complain and worry. When we focus on our immediate circumstances, we become narrow minded and often can't see the forest for the trees! 

Some people see things through rose colored glasses and always look for the good in their circumstances...we call those people Optimists. Others tend to find the negative in their lives and we call them Pessimists. Most people tend to have a little of both in their lives and hold a good balance until something sends them teetering toward the other end of the spectrum. Do you ever feel like you're on an emotional seesaw?  Have you ever felt you were stuck in the quicksand of life? 

When we look directly at our circumstances it's easy to become overwhelmed because we realize that we can't always control our situation. Oh, we try to control our lives and many of us work very hard each day to maintain some semblance of order. Like many people, we find security in knowing that things are going according to plan; but in all actuality, we have no control over any aspect of our lives...we only think we do! 

God orders and plans our lives. He knows what will happen every second of every day. He knows what will happen even before it happens! Of course we make plans and we do our best to carry them out, but God orders our steps. He uses both the positive and the negative in our lives to mold and shape us into the one He desires us to be. He uses those things to teach us and cause us to be more like Him.

Charles Spurgeon says it best: "Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, God would have put you there. You are put by him in the most suitable place, and if you had had the picking of your lot half-an-hour afterwards, you would have come back and said, “Lord, choose for me, for I have not chosen the best after all.” You have heard, perhaps, the old fable in Aesop, of the men that complained to Jupiter, of their burdens, and the god in anger bade them every one get rid of his burden, and take the one he would like best. They all came and proposed to do so. There was a man who had a lame leg, and he thought he could do better if he had a blind eye; the man who had a blind eye thought he could do better if he had to bear poverty and not blindness, while the man who was poor thought poverty the worst of ills; he would not mind taking the sickness of the rich man if he could but have his riches. So they all made a change. But the fable saith that within an hour they were all back again, asking that they might have their own burdens, they found the original burden so much lighter than the one that was taken by their own selection. So would you find it. Then be content; you cannot better your lot. Take up your cross; you could not have a better trial than you have got; it is the best for you; it sifts you the most; it will do you the most good, and prove the most effective means of making you perfect in every good word and work to the glory of God." 

 So tomorrow, when you wake up, no matter what your circumstances are at that very moment, know that God has purposely allowed you to be right where you are experiencing exactly what you are experiencing for a good reason. God's timing is always perfect. He knows what is best for us. He knows what we need and when we need it. He is the giver of good and perfect gifts! He is the lover of our souls! He wants only the best for us because He loves us with an everlasting love. Do you believe that God, our Heavenly Father, knows what's best for your life? He does! After all, He created you exactly as He designed you to be...complete and lacking nothing in His love. Aren't you glad that we have a Father who knows what's best for us? When we realize that we can look at things from His perspective, we see things in a whole new light. We can then learn to accept both the bad and the good things He allows into our lives knowing that He has a reason for them. Let Him teach you to see things from His point of view - you'll gain a whole new perspective on your life!