Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those whose hearts are pure.
² But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
    My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.
³ For I envied the proud
    when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.
⁴ They seem to live such painless lives;
    their bodies are so healthy and strong.
⁵ They don’t have troubles like other people;
    they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else….

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?
    Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?
¹⁴ I get nothing but trouble all day long;
    every morning brings me pain….

I realized that my heart was bitter,
    and I was all torn up inside.
²² I was so foolish and ignorant—
    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.
²³ Yet I still belong to you;
    you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
    leading me to a glorious destiny.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    I desire you more than anything on earth.
²⁶ My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
    but God remains the strength of my heart;
    he is mine forever. Psam 73:1-5, 13,14,21-26

I remember a time in my life when things were not going according to plan (at least not mine). Ministry had dried up. I was looking at being out of work. I was spiritually tired and it seemed everything I had worked so hard for was surely nothing more than a pipe dream. Every step I took seemed to be met with another closed-door.

I remember shaking my fist at Heaven one day and crying out, “You call this a plan? I can do better than this.”

For a number of weeks I tried. I stopped praying. I went my own way. I laid my own plans and doors seemed to open at least a little; But as I considered each I recognized that while these doors might be open they led nowhere. I came to the conclusion David came to thousands of years before me:

 ^“I was so foolish and ignorant—
    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.
²³ Yet I still belong to you;
    you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
    leading me to a glorious destiny.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    I desire you more than anything on earth.”

I discovered  without God nothing else matters, because  without Him everything is  empty and void. Not all the treasure in the world can satisfy or fill that emptiness. BUT…

With God nothing else matters, because my heart is filled and as long as I have Him I can be content.

It comes to this,  in life nothing else matters but God. My circumstances are going to change good to bad..bad to good. That is true whether I have God in My life or not. It doesn’t matter. But it doesn’t matter for different reasons. Without God all the good in the world doesn’t matter because it cannot make or keep me truly happy. With God all the bad in the world doesn’t matter because as long as I am focused on Him I am made and kept truly happy.

Isaiah 26:3 says, You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

What matters is our focus. If we focus on what’s going on around us rather than God our feet are going to slip. If we focus in on God we will stand firm as though we were wearing the best set of cleats the world or Heaven have to offer. Our health may fail. Our fortunes may wither away. Our friends may become enemies but if we can somehow keep our eyes on the Great I Am He will be our strength. We will stand firm!