For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NIV
In the 2008 movie, “Vantage Point,” viewers are able to see the same sequence of events from multiple perspectives. While we think the first one may be clear-cut, we realize the reality proves much different when seen from another’s point of view.
If there was ever a time to have God’s perspective on life, it’s now, for the world is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink. Since 2020, we’ve had a pandemic, supply chain disruptions, inflation, job losses, war in Ukraine, and now a recession.
However, even in the midst of such times, God allows us, who are called to his purposes, to see how he’s working all things to his good. When the news first came out about the pandemic in early 2020, I wrote in my prayer journal, “Show me, Lord, what you want to teach me through this.”
Elisabeth Elliot wrote:
The more you perceive God’s purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem.
Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity
A virus becomes just one of many things in this world to cause us trouble, and I am acutely aware of the reality countless Christ-followers face in other areas of the world where persecution tops the list, along with war, sickness, and economic trials.
Wherever a person may live, no matter the trials faced, they will not last and are nothing in comparison to the joy of knowing Christ and living by his grace in this world and the next. “For the joy set before him,” Christ endured the cross. He knew his purpose and faced it full-on for the joy of being in the center of the Father’s will.
How are you facing the trials of this life? Allow the joy of being in his will to lessen the pain, as you continue to walk toward his purposes for you.
Grace and Peace