The reason you are where you are

WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

Along with your physical location, the question “Where are you?” can address any number of facts concerning what’s going on in your life:

Where do you live?

What’s your stage of life?

Are you busy, or do you have time to spare?

Where are you emotionally?

What blessings fill your life?

What struggles are you facing?

All of these questions (and many others we could ask) contribute to the answer of where you are in your life right now.

Now, pick one of your answers. Pick the one that feels most prominent; maybe it’s something consuming you right now.

WHY ARE YOU WHERE YOU ARE?

Have you considered the reason why you are where you are?  The purpose of it, what God wants for you and from you in it?

I’ve been pondering these questions afresh as we recently moved to a new city.  I’ve wondered why God moved us. What does He want us to do in our new city?

This pondering hasn’t come from a place of complaining or questioning; I’m just curious. And while I know there are “whys” and “whats,” it hit me recently that the primary reason God moved us isn’t found in them. The primary reason in all our “wheres” is answered with WHO.

The reason I am where am, the reason you are where you are (in all your circumstances in life) is found in Acts 17:26-27:

“God determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”

We are where we are so we will seek God.

Don’t rush through that statement too quickly:  You are where you are — with all the physical, mental, emotional and relational circumstances of your life — so you will seek God.

God planned your life so you would seek Him, so you would reach out and find Him.

That blows my mind!

God set the time in history in which we would live. He determined the exact places, as well as every detail associated with our lives so we would seek Him, reach out for Him, and find Him. And we don’t have to search long or reach far, because “He is not far from each one of us.”

He is GOD, and out of his love for us, He continually orchestrates our circumstances and reaches out to us.

GOD GETS TO CHOOSE THE WHERE

Because He’s God, He gets to choose the “where” He desires — the ones He ordains to have the best potential to lead us into a deeper seeking and finding of Him.

Sometimes it’s a move away from what we’ve known and done.

Sometimes it’s no change at all, including no change in a circumstance we want to change.

Sometimes it’s a season of blessings.

Sometimes it’s difficult circumstances.

Such was the case for King David.  In Psalm 27 David describes his circumstances: Evil men sought to devour him. Enemies attacked him. An army besieged him.  A full-out war broke out against him.

These aren’t circumstances David wanted. Yet in the very next verse (verse 4), David shares his response, one based on the deep-rooted desire for God that I long for us all to have:

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.”

David’s “where” led him to seek WHO.  He had times of asking why, times of wanting to know what God was going to do and how God was going to deliver him.  But his primary pursuit was to seek, see and know God is fresh new ways.

This is God’s desire for you, and the primary reason you are where you are.

Here’s God promise in your seeking:

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

It’s pretty amazing that our wholehearted seeking of God will always result in finding Him!

This verse comes just after the popular verse Jeremiah 29:11:

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

THE POINT OF IT ALL

The primary point of all God’s plans for us — when we were born, the exact places we live, the details of each day — is that we will seek Him with all our heart.

And as God spoke through the apostle Paul in Acts 17: He is not far off!

I love the way The Message Bible puts it: “He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; He’s near.”

While we often ask why we are where we are, or what we should do in the place we find ourselves, our first response should be to reach out to God, to seek Him, to seek to know Him in the times, places and events in which He has placed us. We can do so knowing He rewards our seeking with finding — finding Him, knowing Him, seeing and understanding Him more clearly.

This is what we were made for. This is what brings us life:

“Now this is eternal life (both endless years with God and the experience of the life of God in us now):  that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

John 17:3 (explanation added)

How can you use the question “Where are you?” to drive you to a deeper seeking and knowing of God?

Other posts I hope you’ll find helpful:

https://judybmills.comit-all-comes-back-to-intimacy/

This is an older post, but it shares a big part of my journey with God — thinking He didn’t want intimacy with me:  http://judybmills.com/the-beginning/