Gettin' Perspective :: Thursday E-Devotion

Up here in the Virginia foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains we often run into a little fog.  It can be thin and spotty or thick and present for miles.  I remember several times while traveling through the mountains running in and out of very heavy fog.

Life can be a lot like that drive and be pretty confusion, and that is why the rest stops, overlooks and stores are along the trip are important.  They help us get perspective about where we are, where we are going and why we are on the trip.

If we allow the fog to determine our journey, we might just turn around and go home.  If we allow the confusion of life or the thoughts of others to mess with our Christian walk, we may miss the very best God has for us.

Let me share with you the verses I read this morning as I was gettin' perspective:

"You call out to God for help and he helps— he's a good Father that way.  But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living.  Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.  It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.  He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb.  And this was no afterthought.  Even though it has only lately— at the end of the ages— become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you."   1 Peter 1:17-20 (MSG)

Paul, the apostle, said this:

"I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made.  But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me.  Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward— to Jesus.  I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."  Philippians 3:12-14 (MSG)

Don't let the fog side track you or allow you to loose perspective.  Don't quit.  Stay with Jesus the entire way.  God's got plans that are out of this world.

"You are never a failure until you quit." - Rick Warren

The fog.  A plane left a certain airport.  It has happened this way numerous times.  As it headed toward it's destination fog set it.  In a terrible disaster the pilot lost sense of direction and crashed.  That is a terrible fact but is true numerous time.  But let me ask you a question.  How many planes through the years have safely made it through the fog?  The answer is millions.  Millions have been successful.  Why?  The pilot knew what it was to be gettin' perspective.

"Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you.  Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ— that's where the action is.  See things from his perspective."   Colossians 3:2 (MSG)