Casandra Martin

Ever ended up where you never wanted to be? Sometimes life makes strange turns and we end up on a path we never imagined walking. Perhaps it is a relationship that broke rather than bloomed, a work situation that finds you struggling rather than successful, a physical challenge that took you by surprise, or a financial circumstance that demands more sacrifice than you had expected. Whatever it is, you look around at your life, stand a little dismayed with where you are, and wonder how to live in the middle of being where you don’t want to be.

You are not alone. Noah ended up on an ark. Abraham hiked up a mountain. David hid in a cave. Joseph looked through prison bars. Jacob had a hip injury. Paul was shipwrecked. Gideon was thrust into battle. Peter heard a rooster. John got stuck on an island. Jeremiah got thrown into a pit. Ruth lost her husband. The Bible is filled with stories of people who find themselves in the wrong place with the right God. No matter where they are, they make the decision to trust, obey, surrender, rejoice, pray, and worship right where they were.

Sometimes we want to believe that we would be able to look more like Jesus if our circumstances were more ideal. The truth is that God calls us to look like Jesus wherever we find ourselves. God empowers us to walk in faith through our difficulties, and challenges us to use our circumstances as frames for His glory.

My Jesus Resolution today is to look like Jesus in all my circumstances. Faith isn’t about rising above my circumstances nearly as much as it is about looking like Jesus in my circumstances. God calls me to shine for Him wherever I am. Someone once said, “People are like stained glass windows. They glow and sparkle when it’s sunny and bright; but when the sun goes down, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”