It’s all in how you look at something. Have you ever been so involved with the details of something you were doing that you "lost sight" of the goal? In my work, there have been times when I completed a project and looked at the results with pride. Then, my boss would take one look at my conclusions and recommendations and ask "What about....?" His question would make sense and would seem so simple that I would wonder "why didn’t I think of that?" My bosses’ perspective of the project was different than mine. I had lost sight of the ’bigger’ picture.
Can you relate? Have you thought about how we relate to God? Do we see ourselves from a different view point that God does? Yes, sometimes we do. Let us take pride for an example as most of us deal with in our lives. Does pride often causes us to take credit for our achievements without giving God the credit? Do we think since God made us, our behaviors are not our fault? The scriptures teach that God, by His hand, created us. As His creations, we depend on Him. If we view our existence from the perspective of God’s, it will preclude pride from getting in the way. It’s all in how you look at something.
The Bible uses the potter parable to show God has the power to let defects in the creation remain or not. God can impact us all. He wants to impact us all. It is up to us to accept His guidance and let Him be the center of our focus. We should be ever mindful of His work in our lives. Our perspective should be to see His grace as the gift that it is. His Grace is difficult to understand. A pastor once explain grace this way: A football coach told his team if they lost the game, they would report to the gym the next morning and run 10 miles in full uniform. Friday night came and the team lost the ballgame. The next morning, the team dressed in full uniform and stepped out in the heat to run 10 miles. They had made mistakes the night before and the coach was executing the judgment they knew was coming. The players started to run the first laps around the track. After mile number 1, the players were already struggling. The heat, the humidity, and the heavy burden of their uniforms were taken its toll. As they continued to struggle, they looked up and saw the coach walking out of the field house. He was dressed in full uniform. He gathered the players together. He told him they had made mistakes and he knew they could not make the complete run. But since he had set the punishment, it had to be completed. So, as the players sat on the sidelines and watched, the coach completed the 10 mile run for them. When the coach was finished, he collapsed on the field from exhaustion. The punishment was complete.
Grace. It is something that none of us deserve but God has offered to us. From our perspective, we cannot understand how a Holy God could create us, love us, and offer eternal life with Him even though we have so many defects - just like the clay pottery. From God’s perspective, we are His creation. He loves His creations - all of them. No one creation is more important than any other because God is no respecter of persons, that is, He shows NO favoritism. I think some of us will be surprised when we enter Heaven because there will be many people there who we would not expect to see: thieves, murderers, adulterers, etc.! God’s Grace extends to all. One could ask how a person could live their entire lives as a hellion but during the last moments of their life, turn to God and be accepted by Him. This may be hard to understand from our viewpoint until we understand no one deserves to see God. No, not one person deserves to see God but God, through His grace, makes eternal life available to all through Christ. Have you accepted the grace being extended to you by the living God? We need to see ourselves from the perspective of the creation. We must see God from the perspective of His being the Creator. It’s all in how you look at something, isn’t it?
Papa Joe Mac's Commentary:
It’s all in how you look at something. Have you ever been so involved with the details of something you were doing that you "lost sight" of the goal? In my work, there have been times when I completed a project and looked at the results with pride. Then, my boss would take one look at my conclusions and recommendations and ask "What about....?" His question would make sense and would seem so simple that I would wonder "why didn’t I think of that?" My bosses’ perspective of the project was different than mine. I had lost sight of the ’bigger’ picture.
Can you relate? Have you thought about how we relate to God? Do we see ourselves from a different view point that God does? Yes, sometimes we do. Let us take pride for an example as most of us deal with in our lives. Does pride often causes us to take credit for our achievements without giving God the credit? Do we think since God made us, our behaviors are not our fault? The scriptures teach that God, by His hand, created us. As His creations, we depend on Him. If we view our existence from the perspective of God’s, it will preclude pride from getting in the way. It’s all in how you look at something.
The Bible uses the potter parable to show God has the power to let defects in the creation remain or not. God can impact us all. He wants to impact us all. It is up to us to accept His guidance and let Him be the center of our focus. We should be ever mindful of His work in our lives. Our perspective should be to see His grace as the gift that it is. His Grace is difficult to understand. A pastor once explain grace this way: A football coach told his team if they lost the game, they would report to the gym the next morning and run 10 miles in full uniform. Friday night came and the team lost the ballgame. The next morning, the team dressed in full uniform and stepped out in the heat to run 10 miles. They had made mistakes the night before and the coach was executing the judgment they knew was coming. The players started to run the first laps around the track. After mile number 1, the players were already struggling. The heat, the humidity, and the heavy burden of their uniforms were taken its toll. As they continued to struggle, they looked up and saw the coach walking out of the field house. He was dressed in full uniform. He gathered the players together. He told him they had made mistakes and he knew they could not make the complete run. But since he had set the punishment, it had to be completed. So, as the players sat on the sidelines and watched, the coach completed the 10 mile run for them. When the coach was finished, he collapsed on the field from exhaustion. The punishment was complete.
Grace. It is something that none of us deserve but God has offered to us. From our perspective, we cannot understand how a Holy God could create us, love us, and offer eternal life with Him even though we have so many defects - just like the clay pottery. From God’s perspective, we are His creation. He loves His creations - all of them. No one creation is more important than any other because God is no respecter of persons, that is, He shows NO favoritism. I think some of us will be surprised when we enter Heaven because there will be many people there who we would not expect to see: thieves, murderers, adulterers, etc.! God’s Grace extends to all. One could ask how a person could live their entire lives as a hellion but during the last moments of their life, turn to God and be accepted by Him. This may be hard to understand from our viewpoint until we understand no one deserves to see God. No, not one person deserves to see God but God, through His grace, makes eternal life available to all through Christ. Have you accepted the grace being extended to you by the living God? We need to see ourselves from the perspective of the creation. We must see God from the perspective of His being the Creator. It’s all in how you look at something, isn’t it?