“We must learn to see our circumstances through God’s love, and not God’s love through our circumstances.”
– Unknown

Often when I read something that makes my mind stop monkeying around, I immediately want to share it with others. The quote above is something that stopped my monkey brain this morning and made me sit up and take notice.

How often do I lose sight of God because of the circumstances of my life? How often do I struggle to find Him, to feel Him in the midst of it all – only to end up feeling fearful and abandoned? How often do I beg Him to change what is happening to me or around me, instead of moving beyond my self-pity and self-centeredness to see His purpose within it all?

Looking for God through the eyes of my circumstances is backwards thinking. As long as I am stuck searching for God from the bottom of a self-pity pot or the emptiness of a self-seeking soul, I will always end up disappointed.

It is when I see what is happening through the lenses of God’s love that I am able to move from self-centeredness to faith, from fear to trust, from doomsday thinking to hope. God is always working for me. In everything, He is calling me and guiding me to my next step. Looking at my circumstances through the lenses of God’s love helps me to accept reality, welcome learning and experience growth.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NIV)