“Oh, look at this wonderful old drafty house. Mary! Mary!”
—George Bailey
Our perspective of life matters and for Christians we must cling to a biblical view. In Christ, our worldview is being transformed from seeing things purely through a temporary worldly lens to one that is divine and eternal. The Lord of heaven and earth has supreme authority and we have chosen to follow and serve him. As we obediently follow, we are being transformed by the Truth as God’s sons and daughters.
When we believe in Christ for our eternal salvation, the Spirit of Truth begins to reveal the heavenly reality to our blinded souls and the scales start falling off from our spiritual eyes. We start interpreting our circumstances, viewing people, and responding to events knowing the Lord of lords and King of kings is ultimately in control. Humanity was created to love God wholeheartedly and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We cannot accomplish any of this without the help of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, living this way takes humility, trust, and a motivation to glorify God with how we live and love.
Today, we continue our journey through “It’s a Wonderful Life” by focusing on this change in a believer’s perspective. After George meets his guardian angel, Clarence, he begins to see the Truth which creates a change—a turn around—in his perspective. George once was spiritually blinded by the cares of the world, but now he sees clearly there is more to life and it’s wonderful. His attitude has changed, his perspective has been enlarged. He no longer just looks at his problems as being overwhelming. George begins to prioritize what is eternally important and certainly essential: Faith, family, and friends. Now, George sees clearly into the realm of Truth; God is much bigger than anything evil has waged against him. George knows what matters, chooses to treasure it, and he is ready to celebrate his victorious new perspective!
We can easily be overcome by the worries and cares of this life, but let’s grab ahold of our Living Hope—Jesus. He can help us with every hurdle and through every struggle, but we must be willing to invite him to bring a change in our perspective, as well. Dr. Chuck Swindoll is a pastor and teacher I have followed for the past 30 years. I leave you with his thoughts about the power of perspective:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it!”
Romans 12:2 NLT “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
Prayer: Lord, thank you for helping us gain a positive and godly perspective of life. We need help, because at times it fells like life is squeezing us and we don’t know how to get out of its grip. You teach us to come to you when we are weary and you will give us rest. Please take our mental struggles and help us see from your divine perspective. We know that you will work all things together for good, because we love you and are seeking to serve you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.