Learn to see from God’s perspective. It makes all the difference in how much you will allow Him to open your heart and mind to His truths.
Listen to this awesome statement made by Charles Spurgeon:
I fear most the rich when they bring gifts. I loathe the world most when it fawns and flatters. When I heard of a lady who had put on Christ by baptism, that the cold shoulder was given her in all the circles in which she moved; did I, think you, feel more disposed to condole or to congratulate? It was said that now she had but few invitations to such places and such society as she had previously frequented; and I rejoiced, and thanked God for it. I was glad of it, for I felt she was farther removed from temptation.
When I heard of a young man that, after he joined the church, those in his workshop met him at once with loud laughter and reproached him with bitter scorn. I was thankful, because now he could not take up the same position with themselves. He was a marked man: they who knew him discovered that there was such a thing as Christianity, and such a one as an earnest defender of it. It is no evil to the church, depend upon it, to have a great gulf fixed between her and the world.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Prosperity Under Persecution.”
This quote from Charles Spurgeon shows the radical love God has for you after you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
I didn’t used to think of this as love. In my warped and legalistic view of God, I thought He must be punishing me for something. But I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong. Now I see that God acted as He did because I had done something right.
Because of God’s great love, He immediately starts to separate you from people and circumstances that would drag you down and keep you from having and keeping a close relationship with Him.
And yes, you will lose some things. But don’t let yourself concentrate on the things you’ve lost. They were never the best things. Allow God to show you the better things He has in store.
This is a word picture for illustration:
- God can see your whole life and everything about it.
- He knows the great things you are capable of doing, when you can’t see them at all.
- Your life is like a glass that is completely filled to overflowing with different kinds of things. These don’t have to be bad things – just things.
- So in order to give you something better, God must remove some things from the glass.
- Then He can add His new things and start to transform your life into one that He can use to do His Work.
From God’s point of view, He is refining and transforming your life. He wants to remove all distractions that would pull you away from your relationship with Him. Then He will be able to use you in whatever way He desires.
He does not want anyone or anything to keep you from having His Best. So learn to see from God’s perspective.
The process of removing some things and adding something better will be hard. At first, you can only see what has been taken away. And it will be easy to only concentrate on that and never get the better things God has in store.
Keep telling yourself that the old things must be removed before God can give you the new and better things. Keep reading your Bible, praying, and seeking to walk in fellowship with God. As you do this, the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you.
If you keep seeking, God will open your heart to receive the better things He has in store. Learn to see from His perspective.
I have written this from personal experience. I wish I had known this in my early days of seeking God and walking in His truths. It would have saved me much time trying to figure out what God was punishing me for. (A great example of what legalism does to your thinking.)
But He wasn’t trying to punish me. He was trying to refine and transform me into someone He could use to carry out His work with purpose and anointing.