It’s All About Perspective

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This is my birthday month, and it’s one of my favorite months of the year. The sunshine and shadows shift into fall mode, nights and early mornings become crisp with cool air, and I get to celebrate the day I was born by doing all my favorite things. 

I used to hate my birthday, but the Lord has turned all of that around, and I am so thankful! I was discontented with my life for many years, so I had a hard time accepting the celebrations of others. I didn’t want parties. I didn’t want attention. I just hoped it would pass quickly so I could get on with my life.

I was so over-focused on the negative that the lovely and admirable things happening all around me had no chance of shining through. My perspective was shrouded in darkness, therefore so was my mentality about most things. 

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you restless and disturbed within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my [sad] countenance and my God.”

Psalm 43:5 AMP

The way I experience life depends on where I set my feet. If I make my bed in the lowest valley, everything around me will seem insurmountable. The highest walls and the tallest cliffs, with ants that loom like giants.

If I stand on the highest peaks and look down from there, mountains turn to molehills and giants regain their ant-like status.

In the course of this life, there is so much we do not get to choose. The state of our DNA and all that was passed down to us from there… the choices of those who raised us, those who married us, those who harmed or neglected us. There’s so much we don’t get to choose, but thankfully, our perspective is not one of them.

Set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.

Colossians 3:2 AMPC

We all know of someone who simply cannot be brought low. No matter their circumstances, sunshine fills their days and a song never leaves their heart. We also all know of someone who lives every day under a dark cloud, always seeing the negative, unable to recognize the light whether it shines in their lives or not.

What is the difference between these two types of people? One looks at a land filled with giants and only sees the giants, while the other sees a land flowing with milk and honey. Sure, there might be challenges, but if the Lord is with us, how can we go wrong? (Caleb’s Story, Numbers 13+14.)

The circumstances are the same, but the expectations are different… their perspectives are opposite. Why is that?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9 NLT

It’s not the counterfeit “power of positive thinking” that will help us. We cannot depend on our own willpower to see us through. Have we seen life? Have we experienced the truth of the devastation this life can bring? How can we possibly take ourselves to the heights when every stone of our foundation has been demolished and so violently torn away?

We cannot. It is only the power of God that gives us the chance and the choice to overcome our circumstances where it really counts… in the center of our hearts, just between us and Him. It is there that we win the real war of faith, and it’s not by our own weapons, but by His.

Focus on the Lord, Rehearse His Goodness

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4 ESV

It was most likely in the later years of his life when King David wrote Psalm 23. He had been through a lot. He rose from shepherd boy to mighty, conquering king over the span of his lifetime, and the Lord had been with him through it all.

David’s perspective had been cleansed by the goodness of God in his life. But more than that… David’s heart was altogether captivated by God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness. David learned to abide, or remain, in God’s love… and that made all the difference [John 15:5-11].

Over and over again throughout the Psalms, David did the work to keep his mind set on the things of God instead of his overwhelming circumstances. He sang to the Lord, he sought the Lord and shared his heart with Him, he cried out to God in his emotions and frustrations, he wept and repented before God when he sinned.

As a result of his relationship with God, David knew that he would never want for anything because the Lord was his Shepherd. It was all green pastures, cool waters, and the restoration of his soul [his mind, will, and emotions]. David had walked through the valley of the shadow of death many, many, many times, so he knew he had nothing to fear when God was at his side. He knew it by firsthand experience… God never leaves, never forsakes, and His weapons are never weak.

David declared the truth of God over his life, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It was from this perspective that King David lived out his days before the Lord.

Practicing Perspective

King David rehearsed the goodness of God all his life. He repeated it over and over in songs, in prayers, in his journals and in his speeches. This informed his perspective like nothing else ever could. For me, it was writing scripture over and over that finally began to change how I thought about things. It trained my mind to see the world, my own life, through God’s eyes… through the lens of God’s Word.

Ten verses on fear… write them down, speak them out.
Ten verses on anxiety… write them down, believe their truth.
Ten verses on the peace of God…
Ten verses on the grace of God…
Ten verses on how God will never leave me or forsake me…
Ten verses on how God takes care of me…

On and on, a little every day. Sometimes one verse, sometimes twenty.

This is how we build a perspective that sees things from God’s vantage point. It all starts with believing God at His Word, and choosing to live by His truth instead of our own mind, will, and emotions. That may seem easier said than done, and in truth it definitely is, but God is with us and He wants us to succeed more than we do.

Believe me, friend, you are worth the effort.

Whatever we are facing today, I pray we do the work to take on God’s perspective. I pray we step out in faith to trust Him more. I pray we see it all through His eyes, the lens of His Word. I pray our hearts are altogether captivated by His faithfulness and lovingkindness, in Jesus’ name.

These are the last words of David:

“David, the son of Jesse, speaks—
    David, the man who was raised up so high,
David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
    David, the sweet psalmist of Israel.

² “The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me;
    his words are upon my tongue.
³ The God of Israel spoke.
    The Rock of Israel said to me:
‘The one who rules righteously,
    who rules in the fear of God,
⁴ is like the light of morning at sunrise,
    like a morning without clouds,
like the gleaming of the sun
    on new grass after rain.’

2 Samuel 23:1-4 NLT