Day 2 - It's All About Perspective - Truth at First Light

It's All About Perspective

It's all about perspective. I heard Tommy Tenney of God Chasers telling a story about an incident involving his young daughter. The two of them had entered an elevator alone. As they ascended, the little girl stood next to her dad cheerfully talking to herself and asking questions about all the buttons and numbers. As the elevator climbed and stopped at each floor, a few people entered each time, and quickly the elevator grew crowded. Per elevator protocol, Tommy and his daughter, whom I believe was about five at the time, moved to the back and were standing against the back wall. What Tommy noticed was that as the elevator grew more crowded, his daughter became more silent and reserved.

As you can imagine being a five-year-old girl, never having been on an elevator, surrounded by a crowd of adults, her viewpoint was rather overwhelming. Tommy looked down at his daughter and saw that she was holding up her hands, her innocent yet fearful eyes beckoning for him to pick her up. Tommy reached down and picked her up in his arms and instantaneously, she changed back to her bubbly self.

What happened here? Why, when seconds before she was overwhelmed, fearful and quiet, and now she was back to her normal self? Did all the people leave the elevator? No. Her environment hadn't changed a bit. So, what caused the change? For one, she was in her daddy's arms. And two, her perspective had changed.

The Lord in John 16:33 is telling you the very same thing. When your world seems to be overwhelming you, reach up your hands to your Heavenly Father so He can change your perspective. Tommy Tenney didn't tell his daughter to "deal with it." No, he responded the same way God would and lifted her up. When we're in His loving arms, and can see from His perspective, which is above all things, our attitude will change. Brothers and Sisters, Christ died and rose to give us victory over every trial that comes our way. Our faith in this victory is what will not only carry us through the storms of life, but also cause us to be conqerors over them. The precious blood of our Lord Jesus wasn't shed in order to provide us with a means of coping with the trials in the world. Rather, He sacrificed Himself so that we too could overcome the world through Him.

You know, Mt. Everest is the largest mountain in the world. From the ground, it is probably an awesome and intimidating sight--especially if you had to climb over it. However, from a jet at 30,000 feet, it doesn't seem so big. You can choose either to climb over the mountain or look to your Father in Heaven to pick you up and carry you over it. Either way, the mountain hasn't change--but your perspective has.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. [Isaiah 40:31]