“The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.” – Elisabeth Elliot
I’ve seen this quote a number of times before, but its applications hit me more forcefully recently as I’ve been teaching about (and therefore reflecting on) the fruit of the Spirit and the similar list of virtues described in a passage like Colossian 3:12-15.
It struck me that much of the time, and virtually unconsciously, I let myself off the hook because I think that there are things about my circumstances that somehow excuse my not practicing and displaying these Christ-like virtues. It amounts to me saying, “IF ONLY my circumstances, situations, relationships, opportunities, (etc.) were different THEN I would lead a life marked by these virtues.
But that’s crazy, and exceedingly unbiblical – because the doctrine/reality of divine providence teaches me that the situations, circumstances, relationships, opportunities (etc.) that I’m in are there by His design. They are the race marked out for me.
So the truth is that it is precisely in the ‘set of circumstances’ that I’m in that God has ordained that I can best learn to go deeper in the obeying, trusting, rejoicing and serving with the attitudes of compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience and humility that He is determined to develop in me, and to do so, day by day, moment by moment, right where He has placed me.
All this corresponds with what Spurgeon said, very much along the same lines: “Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there.”
