“Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what’s going on around Christ — that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective.”
(Colossians chapter 3, verse 1-2)
Arise, beloved, out of a darkened and confused mindset, which creates cloudy vision. For Christ is renewing our minds, embedding them with His own thoughts and bathing our vision in His clarity. He is ushering us into the fullness of divine perspective and teaching us to see with the eyes of our spirit. We are not to be a people with blinkers on who only see part of the full picture, but we are to be a people who look up into the fullness of Christ. We are to see as He sees.
Perspective is a choice
Our souls are often broken and bruised, battered like a shipwreck in a storm, but when we decide to live out of our spirits — the inmost part of us that is connected to the Holy — we live in the finished work of Calvary. We can rest in His victory. We can choose what reality we live in. An incomplete, soul-controlled reality, or the complete, abundant, highest form of reality: Jesus. Perspective is a moment by moment choice. When our mind is controlled by the Holy Spirit the fruit is life and peace.
The soul’s lifeline
The Lord wants to be our only source of security. We are to trust Him completely. Only through trusting Him do we stand on solid ground. He is jealous for our trust so He slices with His Holy sword all false lifelines that we create for ourselves.
He wants to be our soul’s lifeline. Without daily inviting the freedom of the Lord to be Sovereign in our lives, we can so easily grasp the ropes of worry, fear, self-strength, striving when we’re in difficult waters. But the Lord says, lovingly, “Let go.”
We’re afraid, we’ve held onto these mindsets for a lifetime, but our hands are now caked in blisters. Our own plans, our own strength, our own efforts are exposed as pathetic armour: a cardboard protection that the fire of the Lord consumes. But now we stand exposed, seemingly unprotected, vulnerable — we’re like David running out to face Goliath without a whiff of armour having discarded Saul’s. The armour worn by those who are in the world never seems to fit those who are men and women after God’s own heart. We live by different rules, higher standards.
He rescues us because He delights in us
God likes us to appear vulnerable, having been cut off from every single thing we could have trusted in that was not Him! Those lifelines have been severed by Jesus Himself. Now we stand like David unarmoured on the battlefield before a watching world. Our battle cry is one of faith: the Lord alone will defeat our giants. He is our shield, and His promises are all the protective armour we’ll ever need. His strength illumines our vulnerability. His love is the lifeline that pulls us out of turbulent seas because He delights in us.
“Lifeline:” noun — a rope or line used for life-saving, typically one used to rescue someone in difficult water.
Synonym: Salvation.
“Let go, let go,” the Lord says again. Our hands are now calloused from grasping the useless rope of the striving of our souls.
“Ok Lord, I let go,” we whisper.
And He shows us a scarlet cord that’s been there all along. It’s Calvary’s covenant rope that binds us to Him. And so we hold onto life as we’re lifted into His reality of everlasting love. Circumstances don’t dictate our emotions and wellbeing any longer.
For every moment we belong to Jesus. And every moment is one of abundance.
Amy is a Press Services International Columnist from Adelaide. She was runner-up in the 2018 Basil Sellars Award. Her previous articles can be viewed here: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/amy-manners.html