God, What Are You Doing?

If you read Nancy’s post yesterday, The Sacrifice—And Promise—of Gratitude, I bet it didn’t take long for you to identify the circumstance in your life that “just naturally doesn’t call for gratitude!” We all have them.

For a while now, my tough circumstance has been singleness. Oh, I know God says it’s a gift, but it often feels—in Carolyn McCulley’s words—more like “solitary confinement.”

You, on the other hand, might dream of the freedom singleness would bring. Maybe your tough circumstance is more like one of my friends:

• Nikki, who is hectically trying to care for her family on a very low income,
• Briana, who is exhausted after homeschooling her uncooperative, autistic son each day,
• Sasha, whose husband is divorcing her after several “disastrous” years of marriage.

Whatever your tough circumstance, would you grab a pen and paper, and ask God what He’s doing through your tough circumstance?

Here’s what I came up with:

God, what are you doing through my singleness?

1. I’m teaching you to trust and rest in Me, the “Blessed Controller of your life,” rather than striving and manipulating circumstances to try to make yourself happy (1 Tim. 6:15).

2. I’m freeing you from your idolatry like you asked Me to, so you can satisfy your thirst anytime in Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, rather than scraping for water at the bottom of broken cisterns (Jer. 2:12–13).

3. I’m allowing you to go through this painful season so you will have compassion—and comfort—to offer others; so your "life message” that “God is more than enough!” will give hope and courage to those who desperately need it (2 Cor. 1:3–5).

4. I’m writing your story so people will know it was all Me . . . all My power, all My grace, and not your looks, smarts, or talents (Ps. 46:10).

And I’m sure this is just the beginning. As Pastor John Piper says, “There are a thousand things that God is doing every time something painful happens to you. Most of these you do not know or understand, [just as] Job, Joseph, and Esther did not know what God was doing in their losses.”

Now it’s your turn. What do you think God might be up to in your tough circumstance?