The Challenge

Posted by on December 4, 2008 under Bulletin Articles

The challenge can be stated simply: The challenge is to see this world and human life as God sees it. That challenge is easily stated, but done with extreme difficulty. Perhaps in that can be seen the enormous difference between Jesus and us-he could see life and this world as God sees it. Nothing changes a person’s life as profoundly as being able to look at the world and physical, human life as God does.

When I see my enemy as God sees my enemy, that changes the way I look at my enemies. When I see physical possessions as God sees the physical, that changes my motivation for work. When I see my spouse and children as God sees them, that changes the way I treat them. When I see friends as God sees them, it changes the way I treat friends. In fact, seeing the world and life as God sees them changes the way I look at people-in every relationship. The number one person I will look at differently if I see as God sees is … ME.

Why will I see ME differently? I discover in increasingly profound ways God’s purposes. My society (since childhood) taught me how to look at myself, at needs, at wants, at the future, at plans, and at my purposes. God teaches me something different.

The more I trust God (the more faith I place in God), the more I see and grasp His purposes. The more I see and grasp His purposes, the more I redefine my purpose. The more I redefine my purpose through God’s objectives, the more I understand that God’s objectives are permanent and my self-centered purposes are temporary. Physical death ends my self-centered purposes. Physical death has no impact on God’s purposes.

I am faced with an immediate but continuing decision: “Will I allow God’s permanent purposes to replace my temporary, self-centered purposes? Or, will I resist God’s purposes?” When I discover and accept God’s purposes, I really can live for something bigger than me. I can live for something more permanent than physical existence. I actually can live for something bigger than death-even when self-centered, physical existence of itself can never be bigger than death.

However, this can only be if I look through God’s eyes. Only by looking through God’s eyes can I see the power of resurrection. Through whose eyes do you see?