Point of View

God’s Point of View

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6

I learned a few valuable lessons during my time as a tree surgeon that has helped me in my climb of faith. Tree climbing can be dangerous but our perception of that danger depends on whether we are standing at the bottom or the top of the tree. God is in the business of changing our point of view!  KIMG1816

The first thing we learn is to not look up. In fact the first thing to do is to simply assemble your gear. While I collected my rope, saddle, long pole and ladder I didn’t have time to worry about how much of the tree stood above me. In the same way our walk of faith begins each day by asking for mercy and grace. When we do that; then God comes and fastens His forgiveness around our waist and He pulls us up by His rope of love. We cannot make progress if we worry that His love and mercies will fail. But as we trust God’s equipping then He slowly but surely helps us to climb up towards Him. Secondly we need a ladder to help us get off the ground.  That is what God does when He sends His Holy Spirit. His Spirit comes in and lifts us up daily towards Jesus.  We can’t figure it out or work it out; we just have to keep climbing by faith. Last of all when a climber gets to the highest point in the tree he ties in, sits back and then looks out.

KIMG1845That is God’s promise. He will raise us up so that we can look out and see all of His amazing plan and know that our entire climb has been by grace. We will finally understand that because He has loved us He has brought us up to heaven and seated us right next to Jesus Christ!

 

 

KIMG1860

A Turtle’s Eye View

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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”    Matthew 14:30 ESV

I never thought there was much connection between turtles and storms until the day I met a snapping turtle in the middle of the dirt road near the farm pond. He (or she) was plodding slowly across and being curious I went to get a closer look. At first the turtle stopped and pulled into his shell and closed his eyes. I’m not sure if he thought I might miss him sitting there in the middle of the road but as I came closer he changed tactics. He stretched out his neck stood up on his feet and opened his powerful beak ready to bite. Though I meant him no harm I’m sure that from his turtle’s eye view I looked like a giant intent on making him into turtle soup!

animal turtle tortoise depth of field

Photo by daniyal ghanavati on Pexels.com

All of us are afraid sometimes. Like the turtle on the road or Peter trying to walk on water; we are afraid of what might happen next.  That defensiveness even creeps into our relationship with God. Rather than trusting that His control over life’s the circumstances we view them as a threat and try to hide in our own shell. At other times when we even snap at God or the people around us who are just trying to help.

The good news is that when we are afraid and cry for help Jesus reaches down and catches us just as He did for Peter. God hears our cries and comes to our rescue. He has no plans to make us into soup; instead He pulls us up to walk on water with him all the way back to the boat!