Many times when I am at work I will be confronted with a situation...I will react according to my emotions or how i perceive the situation at the time, but this will lead to a negative outcome. This ultimately leaves me feeling frustrated with the way I handled the situation, but the reason I handled the situation in this manner was because of the way I perceived the situation in the first place!
What we see with our natural eyes is very limited. But we must understand that when we look at things with our spiritual eyes, we see so much more. When we use our spiritual eyes, we have discernment and we have wisdom! We have the choice of how we see situations, based on the eyes we use to see the circumstances before us.
An example of the importance of how we see things from scripture can be found in Joshua 9 where it speaks of "The Gibeonite Deception". Here we read of how the men of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites. Joshua was unsure of the Gibeonites, he was wary of their tricks. but as we read in verse 14, he didnt speak to God, he just saw things through his natural eyes:
The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.They relied on their own senses and they made a big mistake. The devil does the same thing to us today, he tries to draw our focus to all the negative things going on, all the bad circumstances.
But the truth is that no matter what we can percieve in the natural, there is so much more going on in the spiritual! A perfect example of this is my feelings before I went on mission. There were moment when I had doubt in my mind, I thought to myself "what can you really offer those disable children? You have no real usable skills! You are just a simple guy!" When I looked at myself, I could only see a simple guy, but when God looks at us, he sees such a great potential! We must never forget the amazing plans that God has in mind for each of us...and when I say this...its not said lightly. God truly has AMAZING plans for us...far beyond anything that we could imagine or anticipate! This is highlighted in the following scripture from Jeremiah 29:11-14:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."So when we are faced with hard situation, circumstances where we do not know what to do, its very simple...just ask God! We must remember that spending time with God is what sharpens us! We must not allow our senses to blindly guide us. This is actually more important that just how it affects us. If we are controlled by our senses, we are also a poor witness before others. A perfect example of this from the Bible is Sampson, for he was lead by his senses and this ultimately not only had negative impacts on him, but also his family.
We must be able to rule our senses and run to God when we are unsure of what to do. Truthfully God does not want to make things hard for us. He loves us and has an extraordinary purpose for our lives! We just need to ensure we always listen to God's word, we always press into Him when we face troubles, for He will always be with us. But sometimes we are so blinded by what we see in the natural that we miss what can be seen in the spiritual.
But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."
Joshua 22:5
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