Perspective too often is limited by our personal experience.
In 2011, I traveled with a Valley Fellowship mission team to the Amazon. We connected with George and Idelma Gonzales and the Amazon Expeditions crew for a variety of ministry in Columbia, Peru, and Brazil.
I enjoyed teaching the God’ Word in three languages at Escuela Biblica, Umarirazu, Brazil. In one of the sessions, I shared of the Battle of the Longest Day (Joshua 10). I am still laughing about how long it took to translate “hailstones” to people who have never experienced frozen precipitation of any kind! Unbelief was ALL over their faces until I made the statement, “It was a miracle from God!” Immediately their expressions changed as if they were thinking, “Oh, okay, it was miracle.” The students at the Bible School didn’t have first-hand knowledge of hail, but apparently they did have first-hand experience with God’s power.
A group stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and paused. An artist thought – “What a beautiful scene to paint!” A prayer warrior meditated – “What a wonderful example of God’s creative handiwork!” A rancher mused – “What an awful place to lose a cow!” What is your Grand Canyon perspective?
The Message paraphrase of Romans 12:3 has advice for all of us: “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us.” I am pondering my own perspective today as I meditate Numbers chapter 13. Three things ringing in spirit are:
#1 Nothing is too difficult for Almighty God.
Sovereign Lord, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you. Jeremiah 32:17 GNT
#2 He’s the boss; I’m His servant.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 NIV
#3 I am not a grasshopper; God empowers me to do His will so I can do what He tells me to do.
To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them. Numbers 13:33 HCSB
