All In The Perspective...

Some really dear friends and I have been doing a 22-day Bible reading challenge, we've been systematically working our way through John this week and a few days ago we hit chapter 5 the story of the man that Jesus heals by the pools of Bethesda. Verses 8-10 really stick out to me, I found myself sitting there reading it over and over.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,  and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” John 5: 8-10 NIV

The Jewish leaders didn't notice that the man that had been lying there day in and day out helplessly, was walking. They didn't notice the miracle that was literally standing before them. They noticed that he was carrying his "mat"...

How often in our everyday lives do we react like this? How often do we miss the miracle, the blessing, the graciousness of God to nitpick His provision? How often do I miss the miracle to complain? How often is my focus on the wrong thing? How often do I miss His goodness, to focus unimportant things? How often do I get upset because it wasn't my way?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

As you look at a field of dandelions you can either see a hundred weeds or a thousand wishes, it's all in your perspective...

Am I looking at it through His lenses? Am I seeing it through His perspective, doesn't my point of view align with His?

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses ~ Abraham Lincoln