Always Positive

Always Positive

I will continue to rejoice. Philippians 1:18

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR THOUGHTS when circumstances shift in unexpected ways? Do you tend to view that shift as a threat to your hopes and expectations, or do you understand it as part of what God is doing to work out the hopes and expectations you’ve prayed for? Do you default to the mindset of This is going wrong or This is going right? Do you live in fear or faith?

It’s not unusual for those of us trained in worldly ways of thinking to default to the negative—to interpret events through a lens of disappointment, to assume that whatever happens is evidence that God is not answering our prayers rather than evidence that he is. Yes, those events may appear threatening, but Scripture is full of examples of negative turns that were actually positive progress. What do we believe when a situation shifts? Does our faith rise or fall? What do our thoughts say about God?

Paul had plenty of opportunities to see his circumstances in a negative light. He easily could have spun them toward despair. Instead, he was relentless in his view that whatever happened, it would work out for his good and God’s glory (Romans 8:28). In the first chapter of Philippians alone, he saw his confinement in Rome as an opportunity to influence people in high places; he rejoiced that the self-centered preaching of rivals was still getting the name of Jesus out there; and he saw himself in a no-lose situation as the possibility of death approached. Would he remain in the flesh and have opportunity to bear more fruit or would he die and go to be with Jesus? In his eyes, either option was a win. He refused to let any suspicion of God’s purposes, any thought of God’s neglect, or any possibility of unanswered prayer creep into his mind. He insisted on rejoicing because he knew—with absolute conviction—that God was doing good things, no matter how those things appeared on the surface.

That’s Kingdom thinking, and we will falter in prayer and faith if we don’t embrace it. Saturate your life in joy, regardless of how things look. God is on the move, even when he seems to be still. Whether or not you see it, he is working out all things for your good and his glory.

Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.