“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” — Romans 12:2

We often ask God to change our circumstances. We pray for the storm to end, the burden to lift, or the door to open. Sometimes He does exactly that.

But sometimes God is doing something even greater.

He isn’t giving you the power to change your circumstances—He’s giving you the power to resist the change your circumstances are trying to make in you.

Gold can endure tremendous heat without ceasing to be gold. The fire doesn’t change its nature; it burns away what doesn’t belong there. In the same way, God doesn’t promise that His children will avoid the furnace. He promises to preserve them in it and use it to refine them rather than redefine them.

Trials tempt us toward fear, bitterness, anger, compromise, and despair. The greatest battle isn’t always around us; it’s within us. Our greatest enemy is often our inner-me.

Daniel wasn’t changed by the lions’ den. The three Hebrews weren’t changed by the furnace. Paul and Silas weren’t changed by the prison. Their circumstances revealed a faith that refused to bend because God was sustaining them from within.

Don’t judge God’s faithfulness only by whether your situation changes. Look instead at what He’s doing in you. If your faith is deeper, your hope is steadier, and your love for Christ is stronger, then His grace is accomplishing something eternal.

God may not immediately change your circumstances, but He will give you the strength to keep your circumstances from changing you.

–PGR