New Format

A Change of Perspective

A Change of Perspective

I read a magazine article that really spoke to me and convicted me a few months ago. It pinpointed one of the areas of my life I realized needed to change. It was about learning to celebrate the things God is doing instead of dwelling on the wrong things we see.

I was in constant torment in my home. I was always focusing on and concerning myself with all that was going on that was unspiritual and influencing my family towards evil.

I became so discouraged because I realized how little power I had to control all of this. As much as I wanted to protect my family and see them nourished with spiritual truth, I could not make it happen. I felt so hopeless in the constant surrounding influence and opposition.

I was so focused on the power of evil and trying to battle my own discouragement about it all. I believe God wanted to work on me first in all of this. He wants to teach me to see things differently, with eyes of faith.

This meant that I would have to be willing to let go of my worries about what seemed to be going wrong and what might happen as a result. I also had to surrender my disappointments to Him about what I wish my family was like, and what I wished our relationships would be like.

Once I gave those disappointments to Him, I opened my heart to let Him change the way I viewed it all. That’s when the peace began to flow. That’s how I know I am in God’s will, when the peace fills and overflows my heart and mind.

This is living out Jesus’ command to FIRST work on getting the log out of my own eye. Then I may actually be used to help others to get the specks of dust out of their eyes.

It is all about each one of us learning to see clearly . If something is wrong it is always rooted in some kind of deception. I had to face the fact that if I was in such emotional and mental torment, then I was being deceived and had wrong thinking.

Jesus promises us peace and joy in all circumstances. He teaches us to overcome and rest in trusting Him. The bible always points us to how God is working in us through the challenges, whatever they may be.

I always have to keep myself in check to see if my energies are being spent on letting God transform me and my attitudes, or on trying to get others to change.

HE is the potter, I am the clay. I never heard of one clay pot trying to shape another clay pot. It is all the work of the potter. If I am distracted by worrying about all the other clay pots, then I have gotten off of the potters wheel myself.

If you think about it, if it is up to God to do the shaping on all of us, then if I am disappointed and upset because I don’t see change in others, then I am really disappointed with God.

All too often it seems like God isn’t going to do anything about what’s going on. That’s when we start making it our concern.

Or, if God is trying to work on others and nothing is happening, then He really isn’t as powerful as I had hoped.

We know the bible says that 3 things remain; faith, hope, and love. We know that the greatest is love.
Faith is- patience with God
Hope is- patience with ourselves
Love is- patience with others

I have been learning that God will wait as long as needed. He can wait a long, long time for us to finally give up trying to control. He waits for us to finally let go and let Him do it.

He waits for us to stop grasping and let Him change us. His will is for OUR sanctification. His will is for us to grow in the likeness of Christ. His will is for us to love others as Christ loved us.

One of the most effective things I can do when I am tempted to feel disappointment with another person is to ask myself if I have ever disappointed God. Have I ever brushed Him off, forgot to appreciate Him, and worshiped something or someone in His place, etc.?

I have committed every sin there is AGAINST HIM. And yet He shows me unlimited patience and mercy and grace.
He sees me through the filter of Christ Jesus. So, that is how I have to learn to see others. I have to learn to NOT SEE the wrong in others, and to notice and be thankful for what’s right.

I recently heard a program that talked about a woman’s biggest temptation. It is twofold: to compare herself with others and to compare her husband and/or children to other people’s husband and/or children.

I found myself doing that with those people at church. I was comparing Mike to all those godly men who openly acknowledged God. I was comparing my kids with those kids at church who seemed to be so much more interested in youth group activities and mission trips and such.

Anyone can put on their best when they are at church. That is what I was seeing. It was a deception. ALL of us are weak human beings with faults. Even those so called perfect people at church.

When I let God change me, I started seeing some good qualities that my own family had that I had overlooked because I was so busy feeling disappointed with what they didn’t seem to have.

The more I let God open my eyes to see differently, the more I am thankful for the family I have. They are a blessing and we do really all compliment one another in our differences.

I have heard that there is “unity in diversity.” We are different by design.

No, my family may not get excited about attending church, but they have other character qualities that are admirable.
One is a sense of humor. That is something that I often am lacking. I take life so seriously. I can get out of balance in that way. God gave me a family that likes to make a joke out of everything. This is their way of taking something disappointing about life and turning it into something to laugh about. It does often times lighten things up and take the load of burden off.

How often do we carry the weight of the world around on our shoulders? How often do we come across as rigid and serious and cautious and overly concerned, perhaps fearful?
Truth is we come across as “religious”. where is the joy?
Why would anyone want what we have?
If we let God change us and let Him do the changing in others in HIS Time and HIS way, then we will be giving Him total control. We will be filled with HIS Spirit.

Then we will bear fruit:
LOVE, (patience with others)
JOY (not depending on circumstances)
PEACE (a strength and calm trusting in the midst of storms)

Then people will want what we have. Even if they don’t, they will be blessed by what we have, and the day will come when God will be given glory for it all. In the end, that is all that matters, that we spent our lives glorifying God. We are only responsible for ourselves to do that. Each one of us is individually accountable before God as to what we did with what we have been given.

That reminds me of the time that I studied what 1 Peter 3:4 meant when it said that a woman is beautiful when she has a “gentle and quiet spirit” , which is precious in the sight of God.

To have a gentle and quiet spirit is to have an attitude of trust in God. It is to have peace and joy no matter what is going on around us. It is a confidence and strength that is a result of knowing and believing our Lord is faithful and able.

I also remind myself of John 12:20-
Jesus had just told Peter what He wanted from him, to feed His sheep and that he also would end up having to surrender his life and be crucified in the end.
After saying this He simply said to Peter, “follow Me.”

Peter responds by turning around and looking at John and asking Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

We can apply that to those closest to us. It is a temptation, when the Lord is asking us to lay down our lives, to look around us and say “well, what about them?”.
Jesus may answer us by saying, “if I have different plans for them, in My timing, and in My way, what is that to you? Now, you focus on following Me yourself.”

We all need something to “hope” in.
Hope is all about what God is doing in US.
When you find hope in the bible it is talking about our own transformation and ability to overcome challenges we face.
Hope is- patience with yourself.

As women, our curse in Genesis caused us to try to control our husbands and to suffer pain in raising our children. I believe this has a lot to do with trying to control them too.
We are set free from the curse when we focus on controlling ourselves instead of others. This is what we are called to do.
We find satisfaction because we can see progress and results when we are working on ourselves.

We will not be afraid to “get our hopes up”, we will not be afraid of being let down and not getting what we hope for.

Romans 5:3-5 - …we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.