I recently heard Nancy Leigh DeMoss comment on this quote and note that every time we react to our circumstances, we are giving an impression of Christ. When we delight ourselves in the Lord rather than being dragged down or depressed by our circumstances or when we wait patiently before the Lord rather than reacting with frustration and fretting; when we respond with love and grace and forgiveness rather than with anger or bitterness--then the Lord Jesus is glorified. Our reactions can only be viewed as supernatural, and as the world sees us looking unto Jesus to enable us to respond in such a way, then, the world, too, will look up. We reflect, even if just ever so faintly, "how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure" our Savior is.
And the wonderful, amazing thing is, we have the choice! So often we justify our sin, our selfishness, our pride, as a result of our circumstances: that other person's crummy attitude or our crazy schedule and consequent exhaustion. Or that illness or loss of job or broken relationship or whatever hard or unfair or impossible circumstance that is confronting us somehow justifies us in responding in negative, sinful ways.
But we have the choice. William James wrote a number of years ago, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude of mind." In other words, we can choose how we will think about and, thereby, respond to our circumstances. Will we just give in to our fleshly feelings and fret or fear or lash out or give in to despondency? Or will we choose to see in this circumstance the hand of God who is teaching us and molding us into His image and drawing us ever closer to Him?
In her classic book, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life, Hannah Whitall Smith refers to this choice as choosing between a "Juggernaut" and a "chariot." We can choose to see all our circumstances--all our trials and troubles--"as God's chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph." She goes on to explain, "They do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindnesses. They look like Juggernaut cars of misery and wretchedness, which are only waiting to roll over us and crush us into the earth. But could we see them as they really are, we should recognize them as chariots of triumph in which we may ride to those very heights of victory for which our souls have been longing and praying. The Juggernaut car is the visible thing; the chariot of God is the invisible." We have the choice to live by faith in the unseen rather than by the seen for "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Heb. 11:1
What chariots has God brought into your life this past week? A grumpy spouse? an ungrateful child? a vindictive boss? a frightening health diagnosis? a messy out of control house? an exhausting schedule? a hopeless relationship or problem? a scary financial situation? Whatever it is, will you view it not as a Juggernaut threatening to crush you into despair or defeat or doubt, but instead as a chariot sent by your loving, sovereign heavenly Father to draw you ever upward closer to Him, for Your greater good and His greater glory? You and I have the choice today, right now, to see in our circumstances a chariot rather than a Juggernaut, and when we do, not only are we lifted up and strengthened and encouraged by our Savior, but He is manifested as glorious and "wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure" to a watching, desperate world! Sounds like a win win to me! But then, that's the kind of God we serve! And to Him be the glory!
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