Perspective

A 3-year old taught me a great lesson on perspective today. After a story about bears he remarked, “I’m thankful that we can pet the bears when they’re not eating us”. This was quickly followed by, “I’m thankful too that no animals are planning to eat me.” I never would have thought to be thankful for that, but it is true, I also am very thankful that I’m in no immediate danger of being eaten by some wild animal. There are so many things I forget to be thankful for. When my focus is on my problems and frustrations, I miss out on a whole other perspective.

Author Ellen White offers the following perspective:

“To every sincere prayer an answer will come. It may not come just as you desire, or at the time you look for it; but it will come in the way and at the time that will best meet your need. The prayers you offer in loneliness, in weariness, in trial, God answers, not always according to your expectations, but always for your good.”—(Gospel Workers, 258.)

Oh, to have the faith to always take God at His word and trust His promises even when our circumstances point in the opposite direction! I think God wants me to learn how to look at things from a new angle, with heavenly, eternal perspective. He answers every prayer I’ve prayed, but I think I often miss his answers because they don’t fit my pre-determined criteria.

Jesus, please open my eyes, help me to see with the eye of Faith, learning to trust Your timing and Your ways.

“Faith is trusting in God,—believing that He loves us, and knows what is for our best good. Thus, instead of our own way, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership, and accepts its blessings. Truth, uprightness, purity, are pointed out as secrets of life’s success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these. Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.” (Gospel Workers p.259)