Viewpoint

“The eternal perspective is the ability to see all of life from God’s point of view and have what you see affect how you live in the present. Simply stated, the eternal perspective is the ability to walk by faith in God’s Word.”~ Catherine Martin, from A Heart To See Forever



Wherever you go you seem to run across some kind of a “viewpoint” where you can go and see usually something very worthwhile such as the view of a mountain, canyon, valley, or whatever. In the town where I grew up “Viewpoint” was the perfect place to go and hang out with your friends. It was from that very spot that my dad when he was a kid pushed a car over the edge with his buddies just to watch it crash at the bottom of the hill on the road. Definitely the wrong view or way to use what was set up for others to enjoy.


Spiritually we have a viewpoint set up for us to use, the point of view of God. Often people will say, “You need to look at the situation or person through Jesus’ eyes or look at it the way God does.” As simple as that sounds it’s not always that easy to do. Years ago that was the advice I was given when I looked at someone I knew that was giving me trouble. I was to look at them as Jesus did not as I saw them. I honestly couldn’t see God viewing anything different than what I saw therefore what next? I was looking at only the viewpoint, the actual view from a certain point instead of God’s point of view. There is a difference. Am I confusing you yet?


We all seem to have our own “point of view.” Unfortunately that is what gets us into so much trouble. I see something one way and another person sees it in a totally different light. Kind of like Caleb and his buddies in Number 13 when they were sent out to spy on the land they each came back with different points of views. Some saw it flowing with milk and honey and fruitful while others reported seeing big scary giants they wouldn’t be able to overcome.


Reading the Bible and getting to know God in a personal way helps us to see things from God’s point of view. It’s clear we know what He sees but do we know His point of view of what He sees. Again we get that ability by drawing closer to Him and reading His Word and getting to know Him better. Once we do it’s up to us to apply what we have learned to every aspect of our own lives. Daily we need to walk by faith through His Word, through life’s situations, through good times and bad.


Each step forward we take and even those we seem to do going backwards need to be steps of faith and ones that will lead us to the foot of the cross to the viewpoint that beats all views. The place where all journeys need to wind up, where healing, growth, and maturity begin and our personal distorted points of view ends.


God is my viewpoint and His point of view is my God, the Director of my steps, the Author of my faith, and the Perfecter of my faults. We should never climb up onto God’s lap to push things down the hill just to see them crash below. We need to be there to enjoy the view and the view of the One who painted it, God himself.


How great thou art, Lord. How great thou art!



Our host today is Debbie at Heart Choices, go over there and get a great view of her site and what she has to say about today’s quote.