I don’t know at what point during my life I obtained what I call the “God perspective” but it has been with me now for a very long time. Basically, it means that I look at virtually everything concerning my life in terms of God communicating with me. I ask myself numerous times per day what God is trying to teach me about various things going on in my life and the lives of those around me. Jesus taught in parables, and I suppose this story sent to me recently by a reader explains this mystery better than any verbiage I can muster.
Dear Bob,
Praise Jesus! What a story-to add to the others you have had! Every morning I think of you and pray for your healing. I am thankful that you don’t rely on medicine alone. You are a thinking man that can figure out things by yourself (+God). So many people rely only on the doctor and we know they make mistakes and misjudgments. No one knows your body like you do. Plus – you aren’t inclined to hysteria and emotions like so many.
A short praise that happened to me . . . Two weeks ago my husband and I were enlarging a bed for shrubbery and flowers. We dug, transplanted, purchased plants and worked for Thurs, Fri. and Sat. I usually worked with gloves but not always. On Sat. we finished for the day, warmed up dinner, cleaned up. I was pooped. I looked down at my hands then realized that the diamond on my engagement ring was missing.
Oh my! We crawled on hands and knees everywhere I had been, looked in the gloves I wore and inside the small bucket I used to carry my hand tools. My husband even took a flashlight to look in the flower bed. The diamond wasn’t 2 carats or anything like that and we knew that was a shot in the dark (pun intended).
All the time I am praying that God would lead me to find it or give me peace. Next month we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary . . . So I’ll miss the ring for sure. Something like this normally would do a “number” on my mind, but God gave me peace.
At church the next day, I didn’t even draw attention to my loss or ask our Sunday School class to pray that it would be found. God just answered my prayer that I would have peace. The diamond didn’t hold any magic.
When we returned home we knew we had more work to do in the garden bed. I grabbed my small bucket, pulled out my gloves and again looked, felt inside . . . nothing . . . no stone. Peace.
Then I looked inside the bucket again and there in the sunshine, shining in my bucket was my diamond on a small mound of dirt. Praise Jesus!
This experience reminded me of the parable of the woman that lost a coin. It reminds me that He won’t give up on me or YOU either! Praying you are healed in record time and that He will give you peace during this time of rest.
So, this reader had worn this ring over 50 years and suddenly the diamond was lost. Was this a case of bad luck followed by good luck? Was it just coincidence? Using God perspective, she looked beyond karma and secular thinking and thought of it in terms of God and His lesson for her that day that turned out to be rather powerful, we can know peace in anxious times by turning to God. I would imagine that once she gets the diamond reset in the ring that every time she looks at it she henceforth will put a smile on her face and joy in her heart as she fondly thinks of God’s lesson that day. She had peace with or without her cherished diamond because she cherishes God more than anything. I would imagine that this reader no doubt smiled as she mused upon this event, and I am certain God was smiling too.
I hope you have or will gain God perspective in your life. Listen for it. Be aware though that most often but not always it comes in a still small voice. The phrase “still small voice” is found when Elijah was at a low point and feared for his life from Jezebel. Modern translations have it as “the sound of a low whisper”, “a gentle whisper”, “a soft whisper”, or “the sound of a gentle blowing”. God told him there were still 7000 people alive that had not bowed down to Baal that He could choose to work through. If you are sitting under a tree today – God wants you to know that you are not alone. It’s time for you to get up and eat – get re-nourished spiritually.
1 Kings 19:11
Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” . . .