Don’t let your circumstance define and confine you – Part One

Don't let your circumstance define and confine you

Don't let your circumstance define and confine you - Part One

Friends, I welcome you back in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ. Today, I want to speak on this topic, Don’t let your Circumstance Define and Confine you. We are going to take our texts from Genesis 30:1-3, 35:16-20 and 1 Chronicles 4:9-10.

PRAYER:

Father, we want to thank You for another occasion, another time, we can come to You to listen to Your Word. We are praying, dear LORD, that Your Word will find a place in our hearts today, and that Your Word will bring healing to as many as will read this, healing from circumstances that have gone against us. By the power of Your Word heal, we pray, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

In life, there is what we call, cause and effect, and this cause and effect is both a spiritual and as well as a natural law.

Galatians 6:7

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Cause and effect.

Newton’s third Law states: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. To state it differently, actions and reactions are equal and opposite. Every effect in life has an immediate cause that produced it. And behind that cause is another cause, and so on, until you arrive at the primary cause. And that we call the uncaused cause. And this uncaused cause is God Himself. He is the One that causes without being caused by any. He is the Creator without being created Himself. What do we do when cause and effect produce an outcome that is not favorable to us? There are two possible responses open to us:

We can either shrug our shoulders and say, Que Sera sera (what will be will be), and allow the circumstance to define and confine us. Or, we’ll insist that our circumstance or circumstances must not define and confine us. Either of those two responses. We will find them in our discussion today.

Two different responses to our circumstances. The texts we have selected address these different responses to circumstances. Two people we are going to meet in our discussion today; one a woman, Rachael, and the other one a man, Jabez. These two experience similar circumstances but have dissimilar responses. Their circumstances were similar in that they both experienced pain, but their responses were not the same. Rachael allowed her circumstance to define and confine her while Jabez refused to allow his circumstance to define and confine him. He knew he had no control over the pain caused by his circumstance but he refused to allow suffering to accompany his pain. There is a difference between pain and suffering. Never mind that lawyers lump them together when they seek compensation for you for your accident or circumstance that has been adverse to you.

Pain, a physical and emotional pain, is a highly unpleasant feeling you have in your body or in your emotion. But suffering is what goes on in your mind as a result of the pain. To reiterate, pain, may be physical or emotional. It is a highly unpleasant feeling which you feel in your body, which you experience in your body or in your emotion. But suffering is what goes on in your mind as a result of that pain.

For example, as a result of pain you could start thinking of what you could have done differently, how you could have avoided what happened, negative things people may be saying or thinking about you on certainty regarding the future as a result of the painful thing that has happened. You are adding suffering to your pain. Job’s pain came from the loss of his wealth, the loss of his children, as well as the boils that came all over his body. But his sufferings tamed from his wife and those who were supposed to be his friends. They taunted him. They said unkind things about him. They judged his motives and his character. These were the source of his suffering.

 

 

 

Rachael’s response to her circumstance. We find in

Genesis 30:1-3

1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.”

Let me comment little on that. Rachael had two unfortunate circumstances in her life:

  1. More serious than the other.

She had no child for a long time, and when children did come her second pregnancy had serious complications that ended in her death. We shall come to that, as seen in Genesis 35.

In Genesis 30 where we just read, Rachael looked up to her husband for a child and was prepared to die if her husband did not grant her impossible request.

  1. Her self-image suffered because of her childlessness.

The phrase in verse 3: that I also may have chidden by her literally means, that I also may be built up by her. Her self-image had already crashed. When we feel like dying for a temporal need or situation we have allowed our circumstance to define and confine us. When our self-worth is measured by earthly things, we have allowed our circumstance to define and confine us.

Let us not forget that Jesus said, that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Luke 12:15.

Matthew Henry, an English bible commentator, put it this way: “happiness and comfort do not depend on the wealth of this world.”

Another servant of God says that, “what supports life is not the superfluous [that which is excess] but that which is necessary.

God has not promised us the excess. He promises and provides what is necessary. So do not allow the possession of material things or the lack of them to define or confine you. Never forget that money is not everything. Someone has observed interestingly that money can buy you a house but not a home, that money can buy you a bed but not sleep, that money can buy you a clock but not time, that money can buy you a book but not knowledge, that money can buy you food but not an appetite, that money can buy you position but not respect. I want you to listen carefully to me. Money can buy you position but not respect. Money can buy you medicine but not health. Money can buy you insurance but not safety. You see! Money is not everything. So, do not allow your circumstance to define or confine you.

We need to proceed to the second experience that Rachael had in Genesis 35:16-20 However this will be done in our next discussion.

Remember, never allow your circumstance to define and confine you.

 

PRAYER:

Father, I come again in the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ, lifting my friends up to you. As many as have read this…the voice of a man has ceased, but the voice of the Holy Spirit, may You continue in their hearts, lifting their spirits up, especially those who are down, those who are beaten by circumstance. We pray, dear God, that You will help them not to allow their circumstance to define or confine them – that they will rise above these negative circumstances, in the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen!

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