The challenges around you never define who you are. Just because you have experienced something negative doesn’t mean you are not enough. Just because you make mistakes doesn’t mean you are a failure.
Don’t ignore your inner peace in pursuit of prosperity and happiness. When we let our circumstances define who we are, we disturb our own peace. Staying calm in life’s storms is key to thriving, not just surviving.
In Luke 8:24-25, Jesus says, when we focus on Him through thick and thin everything will go according to His good and perfect plan for our lives.
Inner peace is a state of mental and emotional calmness, free of turmoil of negative thoughts and feelings.
We often think that our joy is dependent on our circumstances – when things are going well, there’s peace and all is still, we have joy. We feel, like God is giving us favor. But what about when the storms in life are swirling around us? Are we being punished? Do we not have enough faith?
It’s easy to say that we surrender our lives to God, but do we really mean it? If we say we do and then secretly mean, “ok God, I surrender so now you will bless me. But that’s not the case.
We have to recognize that God is in the storms as much as when we are at peace. He wants us to surrender to Him regardless of the outcome.
We have the ability to create our own stories and futures, they are not defined by our current circumstances.
Even good circumstances can defeat us if we stop working hard and let then guide us.
We can use our circumstances as motivation to prove people wrong or to be an example for others.
We have the power to create a new story for ourselves, regardless of what we face in life.
We can let our circumstances shape us rather than define us.
When we focus on God and the things we can control things begin to change. Our circumstances don’t define us, they are a reminder that we all have some control over our lives.
“Our circumstances and struggles refine us, but they don’t define us.”
From Pity to Praise 