Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Tough Love”: Challenges Perspective! (WATCH HERE)
Over the last two basketball seasons, I have enjoyed officiating basketball. There are two things that are emphasized to officials. 1. Be in your rule book…so you know the rules. 2. Be in position on the court to have a good look at the call you make.
The rule book provides the content. The positioning gives the context.
It has been a benefit to work with and talk with officials who have had much experience seeing the game through the lens of the rule book and making calls and interpretations to the best of their ability.
In life we are constantly confronting situations that need decisions and action.
The question is, what will be the perspective with which we evaluate those situations?
The options?
My own experiences and personal conclusions.
What I have been taught in schools or experienced at home.
What is popular in culture and promoted by the majority.
Is this a safe way to interpret and see life?
What if I called a basketball game based on my experience playing it? Or watching the NBA or what the fans would like?
It would be a mess.
What if I called a basketball game based on the rules for a debate team or a football game.
Disaster.
The point is I want to view the game through the rules of the game.
The same is true of life. There are many different philosophies and perspectives on life. They may work at times or seem right at others.
But would it not be best to see and “call” the realities of life through the lens of the One who created life?
Seems like that would be best.
Jesus felt the same. He spent much time teaching people the Word of God. They wanted to hear his insights, his authority, his truth so much that they would crowd around him. Jesus knew that the best way to view the world, was not through the world, but through his Word. So he taught the people.
Luke 5:1-3: One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
The best way to navigate all aspects of life is viewing it through the Word of God. Jesus himself said, (Matthew 7:24) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Jesus’ advice to us today?
- Be in the Word and 2) view every aspect of life through it!
Apply: How can you find more time to be in the Word. Think of a situation you are addressing currently in your life. Does your approach change as you view it and seek to understand and make a decision when you see it through the perspective of God’s Word?
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to always see life through your word! AMEN.