One way God speaks to us is through the circumstances we are going through. There is always a lesson to be learned when we are going through situations in our life. The good, the bad, and the ugly all have a lesson to be learned from. Going through certain circumstances in our life doesn’t always mean God caused it, but it does mean He can speak to us through it. Remember Joseph’s story? His brothers turned against him, threw him in a pit, then sold him to slavery in Egypt. Yet, through all this Joseph stayed faithful to God and eventually through a series of circumstances became a king in Egypt. When his brothers came to him this is what he said…

Genesis 50:20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

What perspective Joseph had! Can you imagine going through the circumstances he did by his own family members to turn around and see how God used it for something even greater? God has a way of working things out for His glory. Even when things are not going as planned in life and all seems to be going wrong, we can trust that God will use those circumstances to make us better. When life deals us circumstances that we don’t understand we can choose to become better or bitter. If we allow God to speak to us through our circumstances we can become better. If we focus on the trials we can become bitter.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

There are times when God will cause certain circumstances to take place in our life so that He can get a message to us. We have to approach our circumstances with the right attitude. We can’t choose what happens to us but we can choose what happens in us. When we take the time to pray over our circumstances God will begin to lead us to the right perspective. Always ask yourself, and more importantly God, what lesson He is teaching you. Understand that experience is not the best teacher. Just because you go through something doesn’t mean you learned something from it. There are many people who go through circumstances just to repeat them over and over, never learning anything from it. However, educated experience causes you to reflect and learn a great lesson from your circumstances. There is not a greater teacher than educated experience, meaning experiencing circumstances in your life and changing for the better as a result of them. As my mentor Dr. John C. Maxwell wrote in his new book…Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. Always be learning from your circumstances as God speaks to you. Life is a classroom and our experiences can become our education if we approach it the right way.

What are you going through right now that you can learn from?

What lessons do you need to embrace in order to become better?

Here is a 7 step process to go through when situations come at us…

1. Review the situation

2. Reflect on your experiences

3. Realize your lessons

4. Remove fear, pride, or regret

5. Refresh your spirit

6. Resolve to move forward

7. Rejoice in victory