I’ve been thinking a lot about letting my faith determine my circumstances, rather than having it the other way around, where my circumstances would determine my faith. (It was Hannah or Caitlin who mentioned this phrase to me during GST one day.)

Meaning, I should keep what God has promised me in mind, that he will not change and has my future worked out for me. If I was to let my circumstances determine my faith I wouldn’t have any faith left, considering the hopeless situations I constantly find myself in.

But there’s a flip-side to this where your faith determines too much of your circumstances.

Yesterday, I came across two articles about Islam and the Jewish religion where they let their faith determine too much of their circumstances to the point where it had less to do with religion, and more to do with the comfort of oppression.

Article one had to do with the technological oppression of women in Saudi Arabia. In short, women’s rights in Saudi Arabia are defined by Islam and what some people might consider medieval ways of thinking. The technological oppression is from the fact that men will now get an SMS if their women (wife, daughter, sister) leave the kingdom.

(Random fact: Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that does not allow women to drive.)

Article two had to do with the Jewish faith and how people are worried that parts of Israel is becoming too religious, to the point where they’re trying to limit how many candles a person can light up on the Sabbath.

In both cases, it struck me as odd that they let their faith determine their circumstances to the point where it began to oppress others. The danger here lies in the comfort of following those who oppress you. Admittedly though, the comfort comes from knowing that as long as you follow what religion tells you to do, you’re on the right track, and that following monotonous rules and laws to the T becomes a check list of your way to heaven.

But then, that’s not faith anymore, that’s just following rules.

A good example of letting faith determine circumstances was when Paul was thrown into prison and refused to let that dictate his identity or alter his faith. Rather than giving up because he was physically bound up, he realized his Spirit isn’t chained up. In his letter to the Philippians he rejoiced in God’s provision and learned to be content in his circumstances, saying, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

So moral of the story: Simple faith, that is all.