To rise above your circumstances is to experience the abundance of God’s blessings He promised in John 10:10 saying, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Facing whatever adversities along our way instead of running away from our problems is paving the way to see the glory of God who wants to build us into what He wants us to be.
Since it is God who made this wonderful promise, let’s understand this from His own perspective and not from man’s point of view. Most people believe that blessed people are those who have money, power and fame. That’s not what God really meant of abundant life or living life to the fullest. In fact, the most discontented people are not found in the slum areas but you will find them in luxurious houses. Last year, how many CEOs committed suicide? Seldom I hear that it happens in slum areas. In fact, for poor people to commit suicide is act of madness.
If we are going to look up the meaning of an abundant life from the whole context of the Scripture, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us its simple meaning – Jesus came in order to give us a happy life, a contented life.
If the world said, have plenty of money so that you will be happy or get power so that you will be happy, we know that’s baloney. It’s time to look up the Scripture God’s ingredients how to really have a happy or satisfying life. If God commanded us to be happy at all times, it only means it is possible to be really happy in all circumstances.
Let’s find God’s formula on how to be really happy atop all kinds of circumstances in Psalms 1:1-3 which says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” Let’s fix our eyes on the key word of the passage. “Blessed or happy is the man whose delight is in the law or in the word of God.” God said that those who delight in His word are happy.
They are those who come to God’s word in order to know what are his committed sins and be determined to get rid of his known sins. . . . . They are those who seek God’s word in order to know God’s principle and apply them even if it contradicts his common sense. You delight in God’s word if you thirst and hunger for His Word. . . . When you say that you delight in His Word but you read and hear God’s word during Sundays only. . . that’s another baloney. You delight in His Word if you allow God’s Word to transform you into what He wants you to be.
It’s your choice to delight in God’s word that will make you rise above your circumstances like an eagle that loves the coming of a storm. The stronger the wind blows, the higher an eagle could fly and rest its wings above the clouds that set the eagle free from the raging storm underneath. Use the storms of life to rise to greater height. It’s our vehicle to rise above our troubles and rest secure in the hollow of God’s hands whose divine providence will never fail. Isa. 40:31 says, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
God looks at us like a soaring eagle in times of a storm. How about you? How do you look at yourself in trying times?