How many times have you ended a day thinking, boy, am I lucky God didn’t give me what I deserved to get today?
How many more times do we go through a day thinking, when is God going to give so and so what he/she deserves?
The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life isn’t a 60-inch television and a Mercedes in your driveway. Ask a Syrian Christian who has watched his baby slaughtered for refusing to deny Christ (if internet reports are indeed correct), or a single mom working three jobs to put not even enough food on the table, and they’ll tell you truthfully the value of material things.
The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life isn’t making sure that everyone around you is following the rules you’ve been taught or that you’ve decided were the right ones along the way. Just like commercials can lead us to pick up a package of cereal at the grocery store, we can too easily be led to believe that purple is red and right and wrong have middle ground in this capital-driven culture where we are bombarded with information always. Information distractions make it easy to point the finger at others’ wrong-doing, while we give ourselves a pass.
The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life IS knowing the word of God and concentrating on standing in the truth of that word, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. When we stand in that truth, we know that we don’t deserve anything, especially not the love that God showed by offering His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. The knowledge of our own guilt should make us treat others more kindly, as fellow children of God. We all have sins we would rather hide. We all are known by God.
A God perspective not only sees through the eyes of love, it knows that God is infinitely patient and desires to have all of us in His Kingdom through our acceptance of Christ as our Savior. A God perspective doesn’t look for the faults in others, but encourages the good in all of us. It looks for ways to be the hands and feet of Christ. It even sees how television and social media might just be equated with Baal worship and Asherah poles if we are not careful.
We can never be too careful. The Jews of the Old Testament thought they were careful. But over and over again, they failed to follow all of God’s instructions, and inevitably, they paid for their failure to maintain the singularity of God as God. Eventually, they even lost the temple where He had dwelled among them.
But God’s patience is persistent. If you read the history chapters of the Old Testament, you see time and time again that God gives people generations to straighten themselves out, but when He hands down a sentence, it is eventually carried out. The wrath of God that is so vividly depicted in the Old Testament may make modern readers cringe and give those who are looking a handy excuse to forget about trying to apply God’s edicts to their lives, but they do so to their own detriment.
Fortunately for us, we have a Saviour who was willing to take the wrath we deserve upon Himself. Because God’s perspective sees us through the loving eyes of Jesus, we don’t get what we really deserve. We get life eternal with the One and Only God.
See the world through that perspective, and nothing will stop you. Walk in God’s truth and know the kind of peace that surpasses understanding. It is a life-long journey to completion, but we are not alone. Keep listening for the Holy Spirit every day. Keep praying to be guided by the Word of God. And be patient.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
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