The Proper Perspective

October 24th, 2012 by Dave Leave a reply »

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . . —2 Corinthians 2:14

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don’t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.

The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose— to be captives marching in the procession of Christ’s triumphs. We are not on display in God’s showcase— we are here to exhibit only one thing— the “captivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, “I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,” or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.” But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.” Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive— and that became his purpose. It was Paul’s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37).

“We are to God the fragrance of Christ . . .” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
It’s sometimes hard to believe that you are excited about me. Especially when I’m not excited about me … and probably when I am excited about me. I guess the difference between you and me (one of many) is that you dont change … whereas I go up and down. You made a decision a long time ago that you were going to pay a high price and redeem a bunch of sinning humans. Ever since that decision, history has marched on, the humans kept on sinning and you kept on loving.
It seems that we can get to a level of stability and unchanging, this side of heaven. Paul and some of the other gospel writers say so. So that is my prayer today. Make me more like you in that way … unchanging in the face of changing circumstances. Not just Stoic. But reflecting and channeling your love into the world … the same, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the circumstances.
I love you.

Note: Sometimes when we are searching for the right song … we find two songs that together bring a more complete complement to the written material. In those cases we’ll put the second song in at the end. DJR

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