Daniel Fast – Day 15 Devotion -“Eternal Perspective”
“Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” -Matt. 16:23
Obviously, yesterday there was no post because it was our gathering day. I trust you are remaining faithful with the fasting and prayer calendar requests and readings!!
Have you ever felt like your time is not your time? Don’t we all look forward to the weekend or our day off to do whatever it is we want to do, projects around the house, just putting some comfy clothes on and just lounging around being lazy, going somewhere, doing something fun, etc., etc.
But, it seems when we have something in our minds that we want to do or we think we would like to do, we start to look forward to it even if it is just a little bit and then something comes up and we don’t get to do that one thing we wanted to do, and we end up using “our time” for others. If you are like me, self-centered, that can be upsetting and actually make you ill.
truthfully, “our” time is not “our time”. Most of us would agree that when it comes to stewardship, money issues, that God owns it all. Everything belongs to Him, so, why wouldnt we ‘give’ of “our money” to Him? But, sometimes we don’t think that way about “our” time, when we should because time belongs to God also. We must be good managers of His time and I am a big proponent of everyone observing a Sabbath, for spiritual reasons though, not selfish reasons!
In our reading today, Jesus told Peter that He was viewing things from an earthly perpective and not a eternal perspective. If we could all just see that when things ‘come up’ and “get in the way” of what we had in mind of how we were going to spend “our time” as God’s working in our lives, then we might lean into what God is wanting for us or leading us into.
It really is hard to see life from an eternal perspective, but to do so truly is the way we should try to see life. Today, if I could just see that my schedule is messed up because of something God is trying to do requiring me to miss a meeting, and work from home this morning, by giving my wife the opportunity to do a favor for a neighbor spend time with her and get to know her and initiate a relationship that might develop into a discipling opportunity, then I “wouldn’t be seeing things from a human point of view”. Wow, I am so much like Peter!
I pray that I can look at things differently today. I pray that I can see life through eternal lenses. I pray the same for you. try today to consider, “how might God be using this to redirect me and accomplish something He is leading me to?”
I pray you have a blessed day… Mike
LEARNINGS TO SHARE... 
January 25, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I am in week 4 of book 2 for Impact and my lesson was just about managing my life and priorities and this very thing…eternal perspective. Inotherword Kingdom Come. I definately think God is sending me this clear message today. Thanks for sharing your heart and struggle with this.
In Him,
A fellow “type A”
January 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Last week was a tough week for me to hold firm to my chosen fast. It seemed like “every time I turned around”, for 3 days straight, there was something tempting me give in…..just a little bit. I thought of the persistence of Satan to find my weakest moments to use against me. 1 Peter 5:8 came to mind: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (NIV) Well, I could certainly sense him circling me, tempting me, ready to pounce on my weakness. So I told myself, “Okay, focus! Be self-controlled so the lion won’t devour you!…….But how can I be strong enough when it’s right here in my face?”
Then, as I read in 2 Chronicles, I came across a verse that gave me a different perspective. 2 Chronicles 16:9 tells me that “The eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (NIV) Today’s English Version says, “The LORD keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to Him.”
The devil prowls around, looking for my weaknesses. But our LORD sees the whole world in just a glance. And, in that glance he looks into the deepest part of my heart. When I focus on “being self-controlled”, Satan has me focused sin rather than God’s purpose for my day. I needed to change my focus away from what was tempting me toward filling my heart with God’s purpose for my day.
Satan still circles with those nagging temptations. But they have faded to mere annoyances as I focus on God. I pray that He will give all of us strength this week as we determine to keep our hearts fully committed and loyal to Him.