You know what? Life is hard! Yep, that’s the big statement
of today. Life, with all of its dramas and struggles, is hard. It’s sneaky too,
right? Always throwing curveballs your way when you least expect it…sickness,
marital issues, money problems. It’s just plain hard. Some of you are stuck
right there! Everything that you have faced over the last couple of days,
weeks, months, maybe years has dug you a little hole and plopped you down and
left you right there at…HARD. Well, God spoke a single word to me today that
has had me sitting in one spot for the last 20 minutes, staring into space.
PERSPECTIVE. And it’s not just the word perspective itself…no…it’s God’s
perspective. It’s time to change your mindset and how you are looking at your
life. There’s no doubt that life is hard, I’m a witness. But today, God wants
you to stop looking at the burden and look at the One who can bear it.
How many times have we read or quoted Isaiah 55: 8 & 9? “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts.” But do we really get that? Do we really understand that the way
we see a situation could be completely different from the way God sees it? You
might look at your marriage and the struggles that you are having as reasons
for a divorce whereas God could be looking at opportunities to show you how to
deal with the struggles so that you can help someone else down the road. You
could be looking at your inability to have a child as a punishment whereas God is
preparing you for the orphaned child that needs your specific kind of love. You
could see not getting your dream job as a huge rejection but God is seeing how
you avoided a heart attack because of the stress it would have brought. It’s
all about perspective. Do you trust what
God is doing in your life? Have you asked Him what His view is of a certain
situation in your life?
God lead me this morning to a passage of scripture in
Hebrews 2 that I have read many times. But today, when I read it in the Message
translation it really spoke to God’s perspective. It took me off guard because
it was a little deep. 2 questions popped in my head. What was God thinking when
He sent Christ to die for us? I mean, how did He see salvation working for us? I
am pulling out verses 10 – 18 but I encourage you to read the whole chapter.
“It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps
everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer (Jesus)
perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One
who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate
to treat them as family, saying, “I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and
sisters, all I know about you; I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.” Again,
he puts himself in the same family circle when he says, “Even I live by placing my trust in God.” And
yet again, “I’m here with the children God gave me.”
Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the
Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By
embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death
and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for
angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to
enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high
priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it
all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help
was needed.”
When Jesus was on the cross, most people were not thinking
to themselves, ‘Praise the Lord! Now I am free because He died!’ As a matter of
fact, those that were closest to him were grieving and confused as to how this
could have happened. They forgot what He had been telling them throughout His entire
ministry. But God was seeing the big picture. He was seeing Ebony thousands of
years later in her mess, needing a Savior and His grace! He was seeing you in
your sickness, needing a Healer. He was seeing you in your stress, needing a
perfect peace. Remember that when you look at your life and only see the
struggle. Remember that God has a bigger plan for you and your life and you don’t
have to stay stuck at HARD. You can ask the Lord to show you His perspective.
You can ask Him to turn your thinking in an upward direction.
I challenge you today to see breakthrough instead of
struggle, victory instead of defeat, and provision instead of lack! Remember
the words of Paul in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are
called according to his purpose for them.” (NLT)
It’s all about perspective…
Amen
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