Perspective

This morning I opened my daily devotional and it was talking about perspective. I have enclosed a paragraph from it below:


"Perspective is understanding something because you see it from a larger frame of reference. It is the ability to perceive how things are interrelated and then judge their comparative importance. And, for believers, it means seeing life from God's point of view. In the Bible, the words "understanding", "wisdom", and "discernment" all have to do with perspective. The opposite of perspective is "hardness of heart", "blinded" and "dullness.""

We have been discussing Spiritual Warfare during our Bible studies. Part of being able to fight is being able to see and understand. Being able to see and understand means that we have to be open to another point of view outside of our own. In our case that point of view comes from putting on the mind of Christ.

I am often puzzled at how Christians can have so much strife with each other. I do not recall Jesus having ill feelings or strife toward people. I don't recall him laying traps for people or waiting for others to fail or fall. As a matter of fact the Bible says that He came so that none would perish but so that all could have everlasting life.

The main reason that Jesus was able to stay away from this type of behavior was because He had the right perspective. He was here to complete His Father's business so misunderstanding didn't matter. Hurt feelings was not at the forefront. Only accomplishing the will of the Father mattered so as a result Jesus was able love people in spite of being hurt by them. He was able to sacrifice and even ask God to forgive people who had misunderstood Him. He was able to carry out the Father's will.

If you find that there is too much misunderstanding and negativity going on in your thoughts put on the mind of Christ and change your perspective from earthly things to things in Heaven. When you focus on God's will everything around you begins to look different. People who once seemed to annoy you or disgust you now look like souls that need reconciliation to the Father. Situations that once depressed you and distracted you now appear to only be opportunities to give God glory through worship and praise. What was once the Devil trying to kill, steal or destroy you becomes God's opportunity to get the glory from your life because what the Devil meant for bad, God turns around and uses to prosper us.

Ask God daily to help you put on the mind of Christ so that life looks like a chance to do the will of the Father.