We’ve all said it at one time or another. When asked the question, “How are you doing?” and we answer “OK, under the circumstances.”

One could legitimately ask, especially if you are a Christian, “What are you doing down there?” Is being “under the circumstances” where God wants you to be?

The Apostle Paul was a man who could have succumbed to his dire circumstances countless times, especially after becoming a Christian.

He was hunted like an animal by his own people for “crossing over” and believing that Jesus Christ was Israel’s long prophesied Messiah.

Yet, in the midst of his travails, he wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, in 2 Thessalonians 3:16:

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!”

How is that even possible? In another passage — 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 — he added, “… we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

Paul never lost sight of where his hope was anchored.

The late Bible commentator Bill MacDonald wrote: 

“The Christian is not dependent on anything in this world for his serenity. It is based entirely on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. The world cannot give it or take it away. But we must appropriate it in all the circumstances of life. ‘Peace is not cessation from persecution but is the calm of heart that comes from faith in God and that is independent of circumstances.’”

To illustrate, anyone who has flown in an airliner that starts out on the ground in a dark dense fog or blinding rainstorm, knows what it’s like to break through into bright sunshine a few thousand feet up in the air.

It was sunny all along, but you weren’t high up enough to see it. It is the same when we get overwhelmed by our circumstances and lose sight of the “bigger picture” above, where God lives.

Picking up a newspaper or listening to TV news can endanger your health if you dwell on the turmoil and calamity that has inundated every corner of our world lately.

Sometimes the chaos is closer to home in the form of family conflict, career disappointments, financial reversals, etc.

The Devil’s favorite tactic, distraction.

Often, at such times, the Devil mercilessly “piles on” by reminding you of all the “woulda, coulda, shouldas” of your past. Few of us get through a day without reminders of past failures that visit unbidden, like a ghostly accusing voice.

In my book, My Origin, My Destiny, I wrote: 

“In his satirical novel, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote of the fictional demon ‘Screwtape,’ who is training his novice nephew ‘Wormwood’ in the fine art of tempting humans. ‘Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.’

“The most effective technique for squeezing good knowledge out of one’s mind is to consume its ‘bandwidth’ with so many distractions that nothing else can get in. Those distractions don’t need to be particularly bad (or good for that matter), just compelling enough to hold the subject’s attention.”

We are often so preoccupied with business and “making a buck” that we lose sight of the reality of the Kingdom of God that is (thankfully) ruled by the Lord over all circumstances and where His people dwell in eternal peace and unending joy.

That is why Paul wrote, in Colossians 3:1-3:

“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

We are responsible for where we focus our minds, as written in Hebrews 12:2-3: “… looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Release yourself from bondage to earthly circumstances. Look up, “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

How About You?

Where are your spiritual eyes pointed? If you are a believer in Christ, “your life is hidden with Christ in God,” so live accordingly.