For the past couple of years, I have celebrated Rosh Hashanah- the Jewish New year. It happens in September or October by our calendar, and it takes place during a very solemn time of year. Although it is a celebration, it is also a serious time to judge yourself- examine your attitude and the motives of your heart. Traditionally, it is believed that the way you close one year will directly affect God’s judgment for your next year. For example, if you end one year with great faith, God will give to you according to your faith in the next year. By the same principle, if you end your year complaining and in a negative attitude, you may find the next year challenging until you can overcome that negative thought pattern/attitude. You may be wondering why I am telling you all this- it’s spring, and Rosh Hashanah was months ago.
I was thinking this morning that we should be checking our heart all year. What if there are times throughout the year when God is asking us, “Do you want to continue on in this destructive pattern, or can we change it?” It’s like in Joshua, when he said to the people, “Choose this day who you will serve...” (Joshua 24:15) I have started the past couple of years with that thought in my head. I have declared in my heart that I don’t want to end the year complaining. I don’t want to start the next year with bitterness in my heart. I want to walk in faith and love and joy. It has really helped. I feel like examining myself at that time of year has directly impacted what is laid out for me in the coming year. Even more, it has prepared my heart to react more positively when challenging times have come.
I wouldn’t want to mislead you into thinking that a positive attitude about the coming year will make that year be all sunshine and roses! I have had some of the most challenging years of my life since determining to change my heart. The thing is, some of the strongest attacks and circumstances to tempt me to be bitter and negative have happened around that time of year. Why would that be? Well, how much of a test of your character is it, if everything is peachy and you love everyone? I believe the enemy is trying to end my year with me whining, so that the next year will be even more challenging!
I am seeing more and more that, while this is an important principle about ending a year, it is equally as important to be examining your heart all year long. When problems arise, and you are so frustrated you could spit, and people are driving you bananas, this is the time to take a step back and examine yourself. As wrong as the other person(s) involved may be, God is most interested in your reaction! Choose this day! Will you serve God, who is Love? Or the accuser of the brethren, who has come to steal, kill and destroy us and our relationships?
In my experience, God is never feeling as negatively about what we are going through as we are! We tend to whine about it and ask God to see our side. What He wants is to show us how He sees it! His perspective is so much different than ours, it literally has to be seen to be believed. I’m not saying that God is oblivious to your pain, and that He doesn’t care if you’ve been wronged. I’m saying that He has the answer for you. He wants to show you how to forgive, and how He sees the other person(s) involved. He wants to help you become just like Jesus.
Have you heard the saying: “So heavenly minded, that you’re no earthly good”? Well, that’s just plain stupid. The only way you can truly be any good on the earth is to be heavenly minded. When you realize that you really are seated in Christ in heavenly places, (right now!), and you begin to see circumstances from above- from His perspective, you will have a completely different outlook on life. It’s something that I can’t explain in a blog. It’s something that I encourage you to try for yourself. When you see things the way God sees them, suddenly life becomes more hopeful, relationships become more based on pure love, and attacks from the enemy don’t seem as devastating as they once did. But it always comes back to asking God to show you His perspective. When you look at stuff from down here, it can be pretty ugly! Get above it. See it like Jesus does!
amen! :)
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