Perspective

I am one who has always loved my uninterruputed sleep but over the past 7 months of being pregnant, I'm coming to grips with the fact that I might not see one of those uninterrupted nights for at least a decade...so I'm trying to make the best of these quiet moments. Although I wish I could say that I have spent the time in prayer and meditation (which has happened), I have also learned that the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" runs nightly from 2-4 am and Oprah's re-runs air from 1-2 am. But what I want to blog about is a time late last week when I was reading my Bible and God showed me such a powerful life lesson that it has stuck with me throughout the week. It's the simple story of David and Goliath. A story I often just skim over because I know the story inside and out. Yet this time, I really read it. I'll pick up the story in 1 Samuel 17:22 - David has just entered the Israelites camp and has heard Goliath mocking the army. For 40 days, Goliath had been doing the same thing. David saw the Israelites run in "great fear" of this man. He also heard them say "Do you see how this man keeps comning out? He comes out to defy Israel....". David responds to them (I believe in disgust and amazement of their lack of faith) by saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" What God showed me in this passage is Perspective is everything. The army had been dealing with Goliath for 40 days. Goliath had basically sucked the life out of the Israelites and they were living in fear. They also began having "group think" - they all began thinking alike. David on the other hand, just entered the situation and saw things completely different. He was outraged that someone would speak out against His God, the Living God and I think he was ashamed at his brothers and the Israelites that noone would stand up to this mocking fool. He had no fear of him. How often do we end up in a "groupthink" pattern of life?? We have been beaten down by the realities of life and we allow others words to penetrate our hearts. Instead of believing the truths of God, we begin believing in the words of man and in what we see. Not only do we need to fight against these kinds of habits personally but we also must have people who we allow speak into our lives that have that fresh perspective-- a God truth perspective!! We cannot grow in our faith without the kind of perspective David had...