We Get To Do This!
Notes
Transcript
I hate it when people force me to do something. Even if I know it’s the right thing, I hate being told what to do. What ever I’m doing starts to feel like work. Like an obligation. I have to do this. I don’t get a choice or a voice.
I love when I finally get to do something I’ve been looking forward to. Right or wrong, good or bad, I like the feeling of getting to choose what I do. When I am given the opportunity to do something, it feels like a privilege. Like a reward. I get to do this. It’s not an expectation, it’s an honor.
The funny thing is these might be the exact same situations. It’s not about the situation or circumstances. It’s about my perspective.
We can all have a tendency to have a skewed perspective. The grass often looks greener anywhere else. And so where you are feels more like work that reward. But that is not what God wants or has for you. The work is the reward. Being able to work along side the Creator! He even tells us how to keep this perspective.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
This is all about having a right perspective on life. But our buddy Paul doesn’t just talk about it. He lives it!
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
Paul had every reason in this moment to be upset, frustrated, even angry. But instead he chose to look at it as a privilege. This is what God is calling us into. Not a life of bondage, but freedom and joy. But our perspective has to shift from, “I have to do this”, to “I get to do this!”
Where in your life can you shift your perspective? Where can you change the way you speak from have-to to get-to? Really as your vocabulary changes, so will your attitude and how you see things.