PINIMAGEWhenever I find myself in a rut (lack of joy, an anxious heart, doubts and fears, questioning God) it is usually because of a faulty perspective.
Often the reason I struggle in these ways is that I bring God down to my level instead of endeavoring to continually see Him in all His glory – to see Him as He truly is.
Last week I arrived at my favorite vacation spot, our family cabin in Marquette, Michigan. Honestly, I left home weary and running on fumes. Over the past few months, I hadn’t taken much time to rest knowing I would be getting this time away. And frankly, my perspective needed a little re-tuning. Actually, a lot of re-tuning.
When I first arrived, I found it hard to just relax and enjoy the beauty around me. I still felt anxious. I asked God to help me get to the bottom of it because I couldn’t seem to sort it out on my own. I wanted to have joy. I wanted to rest and stop worrying about things but the feelings plagued me daily. After a few days I was able to see what God was speaking to my heart.
My problem was my perspective.
A friend gave me a book quite a while ago and while I was packing for vacation I saw it on my nightstand and tossed it in my book bag. It’s called None Like Him by Jen Wilkin and it describes 10 ways God is different from us. In this brief reflection on some of God’s many characteristics, it’s easy to see that we could never measure the limitless grandeur and majesty of God.
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PINIMAGEGod has used the words of this book along with the beauty of His creation to speak truth to my heart. I had been interacting with God in my human understanding and assigning Him human characteristics. Such a faulty perspective to have! When we interact with God from our finite perspective and forget His infinite existence, we lose site of His perfect holiness, His limitless power and His infinite love.
After just a few days of rest and ministering to my heart by the Holy Spirit I come back to this truth. God is REALLY BIG and I am really small. And that is an understatement.
I’ll share just a few reflections with you here.
He is holy and I am sinful: When I see how big and glorious He is, I also see how small and sinful I am. I see this in the realization that the God who created all things has invited me to know Him and to draw close to Him. He’s made available to me, His bountiful resources and most importantly, intimacy with Him. I often turn this relationship into one of negotiation and rules.
He is powerful: When I see His power and the beauty of what God spoke into existence, I am reminded there is no need to worry and no need to fear. When He said, “Be anxious for nothing.” He meant it and He can back it up.
He is loving: How could such an awesome God love such a lowly, insignificant sinner like myself? I think Wilkin answers this question in a powerful way.
“Praise God that His plans do not rely on my faithfulness, His joy doesn’t hinge on my good behavior, His glory doesn’t depend on my performance. I stumble along, chasing my own agendas and plotting my own ends, occasionally offering Him the reverence He is perpetually due. He is unruffled and unharmed by my inconsistency. He is pleased to be glorified either through me or in spite of me, but He does not need me in the least. And yet He loves me, deeply and eternally, for no other reason than ‘according to the good pleasure of His will.’ (Eph. 1:3-6)” None Like Him, Wilkin
He is GREAT – beyond human understanding in every way. And I am small – subject to routine and predictability. Even those who think they are the greatest among us are very much like the rest of mankind in so many ways.
I listen to Hollywood actors and politicians gloat over their success and make little of God, even mock Him. But step out into God’s rich and wonderful creation and you immediately get a sense for how Big He is and how small you are. It actually makes me shutter at the arrogance of man. But this is nothing new. It’s been happening since the beginning.
King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
In other words, there are no originals. All things originate in our Creator God.
People foolishly deny God and exalt the ideas of man to their demise.
Jeremiah 23:16-17 talks of false prophets who tickle the ears of the listeners, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
And before we begin to point fingers, we must realize it’s in us too. Why was I so out of sorts when I arrived here in this beautiful place? I lost my perspective. I was looking at life without a true vision of the greatness of my God and I was filled with the resulting fear and anxieties. In my pride, I continually try to level the playing field between God and me. It’s laughable. Instead, let me always see His great glory and my great need.
When we enter His presence, when we bask in His love, when we praise and worship His majesty, we regain a proper perspective for living.
And you don’t have to go to a beautiful paradise like Lake Superior to regain perspective (although it certainly helps). You can go to God’s Word and bask in His beauty there. Seek Him and you will find Him fresh and anew.
PINIMAGEThen you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:12-13
I leave you with a wonderful passage of encouragement to the believer. When we meditate on God’s infinite greatness, it’s easy to feel awed by Him. It creates a sense of godly fear and reverence. But what makes God’s greatness so hard for me to comprehend is His pursuit of me and His love toward me.
Psalm 8:4-8
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
PINIMAGEI know there will be more beauty to explore while I am here. There will be more adventures to enjoy, but what makes it even better is doing so with the right perspective. It frees me of trying to do what only God can do in my life. It frees me to rest in His sovereign care and protection. Perhaps you need to change your perspective today and remember with me…
God is great!
I am small.
And I am loved.
