If God Wants You In A Difficult Place

If you allow God to guide your life long enough, He will eventually give you directions that make no sense.  In fact, if you have never received such a direction, you need to spend more time with God.  The Biblical model is actually that God’s directions don’t make sense to the natural mind (Abraham, leave your family and go to a new land.  Gideon, fight with only 300 men.  Lepers, go show yourself to the priest.  Blind man, go wash in the pool.)  God doesn’t want His directions to make sense, He wants them to make faith (Dr. Bill Winston).

Sometimes God will direct you to a place that looks difficult, either because of the landscape or because of the people.  Personally, I didn’t want to move to Westchase, I didn’t want to attend Grace Family Church, and I didn’t want to go to Haiti.  God told me to do all of those, and now I can’t imagine my life if I had disobeyed.  God may direct you to a job, a church, a region, or many other places where He has blessings planned for you.  You can’t see or even imagine such blessings because of the natural circumstances, so you must trust Him.

Genesis 26 might be the best Biblical example of this principle.  If you are in such a situation, please read that chapter.  The land of Gerar was in a famine and Isaac was afraid of the Philistines in the region (maybe that job doesn’t look very lucrative and the boss looks terrible).   Isaac was ready to leave, but God told him to stay.  In Gerar, despite the famine, Isaac became so rich the Philistines envied him.  The Philistine king (Abimelek) became so worried about God’s punishment for mistreating Isaac that he told all the Philistines that anyone harming Isaac or his wife (Rebekah) would die.   The Philistine king even recognized God was with Isaac and wanted a peace treaty with him.

Maybe you know God wants you in a certain place, but you can’t see why.  Remember that wherever you go, God’s blessings go with you (Psalm 23:6).  Plant good seeds where you are.  Trust God for His protection and provision.  (Jeremiah 29:7)  Work with an excellent spirit even when you have a tough boss (Daniel 6:3).  It’s not always easy, I know. 

God wants His light to shine in the darkest places.  God wants His glory to be seen throughout all the earth (Habakkuk 2:14).  God wants to provide for you and protect you, and God wants the world to know that He is with you.  (Isaiah 45 and 60) When you are only in the brightest places, it’s much harder for people to see the Light in your life.  No matter where God wants you, He will be with you for your protection and provision.

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