How you see things will determine how you are going to live. We don’t always see things as they are, we see things as we are. We all see things differently be it positively or negatively. The scripture says “To the pure all things are pure…” Titus 1:15
You can take two people and put them in the same situation, where a lot of positive things are happening, and a few negative things too. One will be happy, content, and enjoying life. While the other will be discouraged, worried, and complaining about where they are. It all borders down to seeing things differently which is largely influenced by the pure or contaminated state of our mindset.
If your mindset is contaminated or polluted, it’s going to distort everything you see, and make you negative and critical; I can’t overcome this challenge. Everything around here is so bad and polluted… The issue here is that our perception becomes our reality. How we view it becomes real to us.
You have to change the way you see things. You could have a great life, a great family and wonderful opportunity, but if you have the wrong mindset, and you are seeing it through a distorted lens, you won’t enjoy what God has given you. See it from a new perspective: positive, grateful, thanking God for what you have and focused on the good.
Have you taken notice that every blessing can bring a certain level of burden? You prayed for that bigger house, but you need more time to clean it. You prayed for a spouse, but he or she can get on your nerves. You prayed for children, but they also come with a lot of work. If you focus on the burden, you will miss the blessing. Yet, the burden is only a fraction of what the blessing is.
Don’t go the next 10 years missing the blessing because you are focused on the burden. Well, I have to drive in traffic, it’s always frustrating, and it takes me forever. The fact that you are in traffic tells me that God has blessed you with a car. He has blessed you with eyesight and a sound mind.
Why not see things differently: Lord, I thank you that I get to drive in traffic today. Thank you for giving me the resources, the strength, the health. It changes your whole attitude. It’s a dishonour to God to go through the day complaining and focused on challenges. This day is a gift from God. Once we use the day wrongly, we can’t get it back.
Do you remember when the disciples brought the five loaves and two fish to Jesus, it wasn’t enough. There were 5,000 people they needed to feed. Jesus could have been displeased, and thought “What good is this? I need a whole lot more”. But the scripture says, “He lifted the loaves and the fish and thank God for it”. (Luke 9:12-17)
When He gave thanks for what was not enough, God multiplied it, and it fed all 5,000 people. Sometimes we are waiting for God to multiply what is not enough but we are missing this step: we get discouraged, complaining, “God, when are you going to change this”?
Try a different approach, “Father, I thank you for this small apartment. Lord, I thank you for this old car. God, I’m grateful for this job, even though they are not treating me right”. When you thank God for what is not enough, that is when God can multiply things and bring you into more than enough.
Even in challenges thank God for who He is and how big He is. You have to see that challenge through the right lens, the lens of faith, the lens of “No weapon formed against you will prosper”, the lens of “What God started in your life He is going to finish”.
Interestingly, David never called Goliath a giant. The other men in the army described his stature, they ran in fear when he came out and mocked them each morning. David could have been intimidated, and thought “I don’t have a chance” but he saw things differently.
He said “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God” (1 Samuel 17:26) He was saying, “I’m not focused on how big he is, I’m focused on how big my God is”. The scripture says “not in any way terrified by your adversaries” Refuse to be intimidated by the enemy. You have all it takes to live in victory. (Philippians 1:28)
WORK ON YOUR MIND!
When you face giants, you shouldn’t go around talking about how big they are, how you will never get well, never get out of debt, never meet the right person. Work on your mindset and Quit calling your challenges “Giants”. If you are making them bigger in your mind, it’s making you smaller. Do like David: see things differently. In the natural, it may look big but God is not limited by what limits us.
And this is where the Israelites missed it. They came to the Promised Land. God had already told them it was theirs, but they had to go in and take it. So Moses sent 12 men to spy out the land. After 40 days ten came back and said, “We don’t have a chance. There are giants in the land. We were in our sights like grasshoppers”. (Numbers 13:1-33)
Notice their lens: can’t do it, people too big, we are like grasshoppers. There were two other spies, Joshua and Caleb. They came back and said, “Moses, we are well able. Yes, the people are big, but we know our God is bigger. Let us go in at once and take this land”. They saw the same people as the first 10 spies, the same giants, the same land, but their perspective was just the opposite.
They were seeing through a different lens: a lens of faith. Those first 10 spies never did go into the Promised Land, the only two from that whole group were Joshua and Caleb. It Makes a difference what lens you are seeing things from and the state of your mindset.
Well, years later the Israelites made it to Jericho. The Promised Land was on the other side. Joshua sent men to spy out that land. A lady named Rahab took the spies in, and hid them in her home, keeping them from being caught. She said to the spies “We are all afraid of you, living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord your God has parted the Red Sea. Our hearts have melted with fear. No one dares to fight after hearing those things” (Joshua 2:9-11)
Here is what is amazing: those original 10 spies felt like grasshoppers but the truth is that the opposition was afraid of them. They thought the Israelites were the giants, but look at what a wrong mindset can do! If you see yourself as small and limited, your challenge is too big, it can keep you from your destiny.
If you knew the truth, the enemy is afraid of you, you are powerful, and you have the spirit of the Most High God on the inside. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, the same spirit that opened blind eyes and shut the mouths of lions lives in you. Now, get rid of that grasshopper lens and defeated mentality. (Romans 8:11)
You may have some giants but see things differently “Greater is He that is in you than what is trying to stop you. You are not a grasshopper, you are a giant killer. You are a history-maker. You are here to take new grounds and to go where no one in your family has gone”. (1 John 4:4)
Don’t go another day with the wrong mindset. Learn to be happy where you are. Find the good in each situation. If you will do this, I decree and declare: like David, giants are about to come down before you. Supernatural breakthrough, supernatural favour, healing, provision and the fullness of your destiny, in Jesus’ name.
The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’!
