January 16

“God sees your life from His eternal perspective.  He will take whatever time is necessary to grow your character to match His assignment for you.  If you have not received a divine commission lately, it may be that your character needs maturing.”  H. Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, 1/16

Lord, you’d think I’d catch on by now.  Why am I always so eager to do great things for you even though I have a string of “projects” left undone in my wake?  When will I learn that You have to make me ready for Your projects--that I can’t pick and choose the ones I want and then head out just because I’m feeling pretty confident at that moment?  In another book I’m reading the author uses the illustration of a helicopter to give me a word picture of God’s perspective.  He’s hovering above us and from His vantage point He sees from the beginning to the end.  For God, there is no time--only the present.  I, on the other hand, am stuck in time and can only see what’s in front of me (and even then I can’t count on seeing it clearly). This morning as I spoke with a friend about this I suddenly “saw” God lowering the rescue ladder down from His Helicopter inviting me to climb up it and to take a look from His perspective.  Of course, it was so high that the clouds prevented me from seeing clearly, but just being up there at His point of view gave me comfort in Him.  I can trust that He does indeed know what He’s doing in my life!  The fact that I even need to say that shows how blind I’ve been.  As my eyes refocused on the venetian blinds at my window I realized that they looked just like that ladder and would be my reminder to climb that ladder whenever He lets it down.  I realized I’ve been bringing God down to earth when I’ve tried to understand His ways when I should have been climbing that rescue ladder up to Him.  Yes, God lives within me, but when I think about Him I need to keep Him above me in more ways than one.

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!  Let thy glory be over all the earth!”  Psalm 57:5