Perspective

As a youngster I used to love going into familiar rooms and sit in places that you aren't normally supposed to sit.  For example, I would sit on the dryer and look around the room because from the dryer, you get to see the room from a whole new perspective.

Perspective is the gathering of information, data and general input from your surroundings that all comes to a central point which is you.  You might be seeing things from a different angle but the thing that always remains the same is that it is still you that is doing the looking.  Why is that important to note?  Because even though we are recieving input from different places, the new information still mingles with all the "old" stuff: our thoughts, experiences, emotions, and so we can tend to take the new info, and interpret it through old lenses or ways of understanding.  So even though we might have new experiences, the outcome can result in little change.

Have you ever asked yourself why it is that sometimes as a child of God, it is so difficult to receive or understand what God thinks of you?  Maybe it's because what He is saying to you is being filtered so much by your own ways of thinking and understanding that His message has a difficult time getting through.

Colossians 2:20-22 says "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?  These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings."

What Paul is trying to say here is that as humans we tend to create rituals and habits that have a "look" about them that seems to be on the mark but is really not how God sees things.  Wouldn't it be great if we could just "get outside ourselves" and see things for the way they really are?  My first response is "YES!"  That is until I realize that often what God is trying to tell me is something that needs to change in me.  When this happens it isn't always so easy to accept.

So what is God saying about us here?  He is saying that if we have accepted Jesus in faith as Lord and Saviour, then we have died to the basic principles of this world.  That means that, as far as God sees, I am able to hear and obey what He says and live in the joy of what comes from that.  But so often I submit to the rules and standards of the world because that's what is normal from my perspective.  I take what God says and try to fit it into my own way of thinking instead of the other way around.  What a mess!

The temptation is to try and fix it.  But when we do there is a subtle thing taking place:  I begin to work in my own strength and understanding and that brings me back to my greatest need---direction from God.  So what does good, practical direction look like here?

Listen to what God says!  It's as plain and simple as that--listen to what He thinks about you, and not about what you think about you.  He says--"since you have received Jesus, you have received freedom from the old ways of thinking.  Now accept this as true and ask to be taught what this means so that you can live it."

It seems almost wrong to declare that we have died to the basic principles of this world, because we mess up so often.  So we become tempted to actually deny what God declares so as to try and express humility.  But this is false humility because it is not accepting the fullness of what God says about us.

So I suggest this:  humbly declare what God clearly says about you.  Base it on what He says and not about what you think of yourself.  What this does is put us into a place where we become amazed that He would actually think that of us!  I don't have to deny anything that God says of me.

So today, when you are wrestling with your own thoughts about yourself, remember this: If you are in Jesus, then He sees you as free from the perspectives of this world.  You are free.  You are free. . . .

You are free!

BT