Changing Our Perspective

It is my turn (Doug) to write something. Since this is our family’s blog, and I don’t have my own, I am going to try and write an entry myself. This is a little scary for me, because if you have ever received an email from me, you will know that my grammar skills are not the most prolific.

I have really been trying to read more lately. There are many reasons why I am doing that, but I will have to talk about that later.

I have recently read a book by a man named Mark Batterson. He is the Pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. The book is called “In a pit with a lion on a snowy day.” This is a book I would highly recommend. He also has a blog. Here is the link.
http://www.evotional.com/

There are so many great points in his book, but there is one that really stuck out to me.
Mark Batterson quotes C.S Lewis in his book. The quote says this. “If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now?

Mark says that we blame our circumstances when things are not going the way we want them to. We always look for something to blame. But I love this quote by Mark. (We are best buddies by the way. That is why I call him Mark.) He says, “Maybe our problem isn’t our circumstances. Maybe our problem is our perspective.”

Do you ever feel like God just thumps you on the head when he wants you to get something? I had one of those moments when I read this. So many times I pray for things in my life, and I feel like they should just happen the way I want them to happen. This probably stems from my sinful nature as a human being.

So many times I pray safe prayers. I pray for things that I know God could easily handle. I pray for things that are not really risky. I pray for things that will go exactly the way I want them to go. But I really should pray for God to change my perspective on life, His will, and my desires.

I love this quote by my friend Mark. (I'm just kidding about him being my best friend, although he seems like a really cool guy.) “If we could see what God sees, we would pray very different prayers.”

I know this is a great point, but it is very scary for me because I know that God has to break us down to build us up. Praying for His will means that in some cases we will pray for God to take us through some rough times. But as true as that may be, we can still hold on to the truth that God is always with us and will never leave us. And in the end we will be much stronger than we could have ever thought possible.

I will end with one more quote. "Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances."