It’s Where God Wants You

Can you believe it’s thanksgiving again?  My family has been in major preparation trying to make this Thanksgiving the best ever.  We’re tired of having Thanksgiving the way we’ve always had it.  Not that there was anything wrong with the old tradition, but we feel that with our family changing and growing it’s time to upgrade Thanksgiving.

As we make preparations, members of the family are trying to educate my brother and me on this new trend called “friendsgiving”.  As you can image, the two of us won’t have any part of a friendsgiving.  Why you ask?  It sounds like an attempt to take “thanks” out of Thanksgiving in the same manner some try to take “Christ” out of Christmas (X-mas).  For us, Thanksgiving is a family event and it only happens once a year as it is. Nonetheless, here’s a little taste of what I’ll be sharing with my family this Thanksgiving.  Why don’t you share it with yours?

God wants you there?
So where is there?  What unfavorable situation might you be in right now?  Maybe you received a negative doctors report recently.  Maybe you find yourself in bad relationships or having turbulence in your marriage.  Maybe your finances are all messed up.  Maybe you’ve experienced a job loss.  Could it be that life’s going in an unforeseen direction?  Maybe this is “there”.  The place where you are.

While the negative situations exist so do positive ones.  So let’s reverse the aforementioned.  Maybe you’re in a favorable situation.  Maybe you’ve received a good doctor’s report.  Maybe you find yourself in the best, most enjoyable relationships of your lifetime.  Maybe you just took a new job or received a promotion.  Could it be that life’s going a whole lot better for you than you could have possibly imagined?  Maybe this is “there”.  The place where you are.

For many, the negative situations is where “there” is and for others it’s the positive.  In either case or in an in between state, have you ever wondered why this is happening?  Why are you “there”?

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

Ordinary people believe that stuff, situations, circumstances just happen randomly.  Are you like everyone else?  Do you believe that that negative “there” or that positive “there” is just some random happening?  If so, you’re experiencing life no differently than any other normal person and your outcome too will be normal.

Here’s an uncommon approach, what if the “there”, your situation is what God wants for you.  What if God wants you there?  How would you handle “there”?  To be uncommon, we must learn how to see “there” like God sees it, but at the minimum see it unlike normal people do.  Learn to enjoy what God wants for you.  Don’t see the problems as problem and don’t see the favor as a rare, once in a lifetime occurrence.  God wants to take the negative “there” to make you better and He wants to take the positive “there” so you can make others better.  That’s something to be thankful about.

The takeaway is this, no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, be thankful; it’s right where God wants you.  Our family has decided to make the best of “there” and see it as what God wants for us.

Question: How can you change the way you see your “there”, the place you find yourself?  Leave us a comment.