November 17, 2010
Perspective
"They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
-Isaiah 40:31
Birds overcome the lower law of gravity by the higher law of flight. And what is true for birds is true for the soul. Souls that soar on wings like eagles overcome the lower law of sin and death. Hannah Whitall Smith writes, "The 'law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus' must necessarily be a higher and more dominant law than the law of sin and death; therefore, the soul that has mounted into this upper region of the life in Christ cannot fail to conquer and triumph." *[1]
Why is it then that so many Christians fail to conquer? Perhaps it's because we fail to mount up and soar with wings and choose instead to live on the same low level as our trials. Little wonder we blunder when the battleground we choose is on an earthly plane. Christians are powerless there; that is, unless they shift to a higher battleground and choose weapons of warfare that are spiritual.
What we need is perspective. We need to see what birds see. When, like eagles, we soar on wings, trials look extraordinarily different. When viewed from their own level, trials look like impassable walls, but when viewed from above, the wall appears as a thin line, something easily overcome.
You have wings. You don't need stronger, better ones. You don't need more wings, or larger ones. You possess all that you need to gain a heavenly perspective on your trials and thereby overcome. A passive or inactive trust in the Lord won't do. To use your wings is to actively trust in God.
Lord, I don't want to trust You in theory or in word only. I want my trust in You to be as active and as strenuous as "mounting up with wings." As I do, thank You for the higher, heavenly perspective You give me over my trials.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]* Smith, Hannah Whitall, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1976, p.169.
Taken from Diamonds in the Dust. Copyright © 1993 by Joni Eareckson Tada. Used by permission. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
*****************************************************
I love reading articles from Joni Eareckson Tada, because she knows about faith even if the road ahead for her does not bode well or promise an outcome she may desire, she still keeps on keeping on.She has been gifted a Godly perspective on this physical life that many of us do not have, but should. When a person can live a life of faith and trust and maintain a love for God as she does I take notice, and want to hear how she has kept the faith in the face of such a terrible loss of physical abilities and trauma that she has gone through.
How do people do it, in the face of so much pain and grief and loss how do they continue to have faith in God, how do they maintain a love for God under the trying circumstances that people like this have and are going through? I want to know, I want to know their secret , these are the people I study, these are the people worthy of my respect. These are the people like Joesph and Daniel of the Tanakh who through many many years of trial , pain, imprisonment, continued to love and respect and honor God with their lives. These are the folks that are heroes in my book and who we need to listen to.
Blessings in Christ
Endura/ PATC
No comments:
Post a Comment