Shift in Perspective

   Shift in Perspective

“When Jesus heard this, he told them. “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

Jesus is addressing scribes and the Pharisees when they saw him eating with tax collectors and sinners. They are asking how Jesus could be eating with people who in their eyes were the lowest scum on the earth. But through the eyes of Christ they were something completely different. They were the exact people Jesus chose to die for and they, unlike the Pharisees and scribes knew what they were missing. 

The pride in my heart can stop me from seeing what Jesus wants me to see.

Pride says I have it. Pride says I know better. Pride says I am my own god. That one really hits me. Repentance is one of the things that we were learning at camp that had us each take time in our hearts to ask God what needed to be surrendered. The student wrote on the block what they were asking God to forgive them for and then laid it down on the stage. The act of giving that back to God asking for forgiveness in a visual way but also acknowledging out loud to the leaders what that was. I have learned that saying things out loud brings them into the light. So as leaders we always participate in what the students do and I was pretty surprised when I wrote on my block what I was feeling within my heart. "Pride Lord?" I was starting to recognize the weakness part but pride? On the back of the block I wrote, “Help me to reveal your heart, that means vulnerability, show them your heart.” What kind of surprised me more is that I wrote weakness and pride. It left me asking myself how those two could go together.

Because I do have pride in my heart. Thinking I don’t is just lying to myself but acknowledging that and surrendering that God can then move in and begin to work in that. Healing those places within my heart that I will tend to hide away or dismiss can allow Him more of His heart. The heart of Christ so that others can see Jesus. Repentance is a gift that is given to me that is the Holy Spirit working in me to call to mind those things that need to go.

Father,

Call out those things that cause my perspective to change. Seeing things through your love requires removing the things within my heart that don’t reflect your heart Jesus. So continue to bring those things to my mind daily. Help me to shift my perspective by keeping my eyes on you King Jesus.

Amen