Which Perspective Will I Choose To Focus On?

Jessica Roland, Australia

We are going to look at a prayer by David. David was going through a lot of challenges and assumed it meant that God had forgotten about him. He was very depressed & sad. He felt alone & distant from God. He decided to talk to God & express his heart. At first he was completely distraught & consumed by his problems, then he changed to rejoicing, trusting, and praising God. His perspective was drastically transformed during his prayer. In the midst of his overwhelming feelings, he learned how to persevere through his pain & trials by seeing God’s goodness. He learnt that just by changing his perspective it changed everything.

"How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me." – Psalm 13:1-6

devotional

This prayer is raw. David is pouring his heart out and questioning God. I can imagine he was sobbing with tears too (like ‘ugly crying’ haha). I can totally relate to this. I’ve been in this place emotionally SO many times!! Can you relate to him? Maybe your situations haven’t been as extreme or emotional. How about just feeling hopeless, asking ‘why God?’, discouraged, faithless, lacking trust in God’s plans, fearful, depressed, anxious, self piteous, or insecure?

I love looking at David’s heart because in scriptures, God referred to him as ‘a man after my own heart’ (Reference: 1 Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22). I want to follow David’s example so I can be ‘a woman after God’s own heart’.

So how did David’s prayer transition from discouragement & despair to a place of trust, joy & encouragement?

He was depressed & questioning God, BUT he still fought to see God’s love and goodness. He remembered how amazing it is to have salvation. He decided that if nothing else was good in his life, it was awesome to have a relationship with God. If nothing else went well in life, then at least he got to know the Creator of the whole Universe!!! That was enough for him and he praised God for it. He knew God promised unfailing love, so He held onto God’s promises. Instead of focusing on his problems, David CHOSE to be grateful and thankful.

What do YOU focus on when you have challenges?

For numerous years I’ve had a long list of chronic health issues & felt so badly that I’ve been convinced that I’m dying. (I’m not just being dramatic. This is literally what I’ve thought). At the same time, I’ve also had different emotional, behavioural, and health issues with my 3 young daughters. Many times I have felt completely hopeless and angry with God, that this is not what I want for my life. I have questioned God & been so discouraged He hasn’t taken these things away. I love this scripture because it teaches me how to be surrendered, grateful, & not focus on my challenges. It has completely changed my perspective. No matter what my trials are, God’s love is still constant & I have so much to be grateful for! My heart will rejoice because of my salvation. I now write in a gratitude journal every day (for over a year now) to help me stay focused on God’s goodness & many blessings. No matter what life’s circumstances, we have a choice of what we will focus on.

Sisters, we all have problems. They are real, they can be difficult & often discouraging, BUT, we have a greater hope & love in God. Let’s choose to focus on God & His goodness in our lives.