have you ever noticed a scenario something like…2 different people going through the same set of circumstances. one person is joyful and full of life regardless or perhaps they aren’t happy but they are surely not broken. the other person is bitter and frustrated and wondering how this could happen to them.
the difference is perspective.
the last three years have been a doosy. talk about dark night of the soul. the last year with some pretty significant blows. it seemed like loss after loss after disappointment after disappointment. i’d like to think things are turning but i am still much in the same place.
the difference is perspective.
while my circumstances haven’t changed i think life is coming back to my body. it is as if blood is rushing to my heart where it felt like it had been cut off. the fear of not being able to go one more step and He so kindly steps in and says…hey, let’s change your perspective.
what i am NOT talking about is relegating your pain or circumstances to inconsequential. if you’re in pain, it’s pain. if your circumstances are chaos, it’s chaos. perspective however is worldly or it is kingdom. you. get. to choose.
WORLDLY PERSPECTIVE
worldly perspective leaves you in despair. it leaves you wondering how YOU will provide. how YOU will make a way. how YOU will…..there is no life in a worldly perspective. there is no joy. there is no peace. there is nothing good. how could it?
so quickly we turn to this worldly perspective where circumstances and emotions rule. where what we see in front of us is reality instead of what Jesus did on the cross.
please hear me…i understand choosing the worldly perspective. it is so easy! it is so easy to look at blow after blow and wonder if God is actually doing anything up there. it is easy to look at what i can see in front of me and doubt. it takes its toll on our soul.
but there is a different way.
KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
there is a much better way. God’s way. before you write me off as sounding cliche, there is some beautiful truth to be had here. i have done some fun study on habits and the power of thinking. thinking wrongly and thinking rightly. and it is so fun to me to see the science behind it. that yet again science backs up what God said thousands of years ago!
a big part of the shift, i think, is the ability to realize that the emotions, while valid and real, are not necessarily reality. it would have been easy for abraham to “focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child” but he didn’t because he was convinced that the reality was that “God would make good on what He had said.”
and there are a million other examples. it would have been easy for david to wonder if God actually was going to make him king. or john to wonder if Jesus was actually the messiah (which he did). it would have been easy for joseph to wonder how in the world people would ever bow down to him. and the list goes on.
so this kingdom perspective isn’t about writing off circumstances. i love how bill johnson says it: faith doesn’t deny a problem exists, it just denies it a place of influence! the kingdom perspective is one of faith. faith in a God who will come through…somehow. it may not look like what we want it to look like but He will show up. He will give strong support to the righteous (in case you wonder that is EVERYONE in Christ).
in the words of kris valloton, “if it ain’t good, it ain’t over.” He promised to work all things for our good and His glory. while it is easy to focus on what isn’t happening or changing; easy to focus on the pain and frustration, there is a better way. there is a way to live abundant, not weighed down by the muck around us.
perhaps you don’t have a kingdom perspective. perhaps it feels far off. ask Him to give it to you. ask Him for help! it is after all His perspective. He delights in giving it!
