Bible Passage: “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.” (1 Chronicles 29:11)
Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 29:1-20
Perspective is a funny thing. It literally changes the way we see things.
My wife is an art teacher at a local school. One of the constant lessons she imparts to the students in the variety of classes she teaches (from drawing to painting to sculpture, architecture, print-making, or textiles) is the importance and significance of perspective.
How we look at things and where we look at things from determines what we see. The exact same thing can look entirely different from another perspective. So much so that we may not even recognize the most familiar of things.
Differences in perspective can be both encouraging and terrifying. But if we never change our perspective, we certainly will not be able to understand what we are looking at.
Men, gaining a different perspective isn’t always easy, is it? One of the more difficult shifts is pulling back from the trees so we can see the forest. But that shift from the immediate to a larger perspective is one of the more important shifts we can make.
Drawing ourselves from a position where we are caught up in the specifics and details of our circumstances and into a broader view of things is one of the most freeing moves we can make—but it can be scary.
David, the model king of Israel who most foreshadows the coming Messiah, offers us an example of what it means to pull back and see ourselves in the context of God’s larger story.
After David has been told that he will not be the one to build the Temple—his son will do that—David does not sulk in self-pity. Instead, he dedicates himself to making Solomon’s task as easy as possible by gathering all the materials together needed to build.
He then offers a beautiful prayer that reveals his broader perspective on himself, Israel, the world at large, and most importantly, God and His involvement in their lives.
David’s prayer is a call for men: in moments when we could lament what we cannot do, we can pull away from ourselves and be drawn into a new heavenly perspective.
Prayer: God, it is easy to be caught staring at the obstacles of the trees and to forget the beauty of the forest. Help me, when necessary, to change my perspective and lift my eyes to You and Your work in my life and Your world. Amen.
Reflection: In what situations might you be suffering from a too-narrow perspective? How can you gain a broader perspective?
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