At all times and under all circumstances the Christian should realize that God is behind the circumstances through which he is passing. It is God with whom the saint of God “has to do,” not merely the circumstances.

When we come to really know God, we know Him as love. Then, knowing that everything comes to us from Him, though we find ourselves having to pass through pain and sorrow and trials as part of His discipline; but everything that comes from God comes from a source and spring in which we have fullest confidence. We look through the circumstances to Him, knowing that nothing can separate us from His love.

Is it not quite true, however, that we often look at the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed and consider only our feelings and judgment about them? What we should be occupied with is, not the circumstances, but what God intends by them. There may be some secret evil (one of the thousands of things that, if allowed, hinders the enjoyment of God) working in our hearts without our realizing it. It is good that God sends some circumstance that shows us the evil, in order that it may be put away. Is not this a blessing? The circumstance does not create the evil; it only acts upon what it finds to be in our hearts and makes it manifest to us. When we discover the evil and put it away, God’s purpose for the circumstance is seen, and the trials are all forgotten.

If there are circumstances that try and perplex our hearts, let us realize it is God with whom we “have to do,” and all He has in mind for us is done in divine love. The moment the heart is brought into the recognition of God’s presence, it can submit and God’s work is done. The soul finds itself in communion with Him about the circumstances.

—J.N. Darby