The closer you are to your challenges, the less you are able to see past them. Challenges are neither big nor small in and of themselves. It’s what you compare them to that makes the difference. For example: is your house big or small? Well, that’s a relative question, right? Compared to a tiny house, it’s big, but compared to a massive house, it’s small. The challenges you are facing right now are only as big or small as to what you are comparing them to.
Unfortunately, most people view problems way out of proportion. It’s like taking a quarter and holding it up one inch from your eye––it appears to be huge, blocking your view from everything. In reality, though, it’s only less than an inch in diameter. You see, here is a hard truth:
Proximity Changes Perspective
The closer you are to your problems, the bigger your problems will appear. But the closer you get to God, the smaller your problems become. Whatever you magnify will get bigger.
Psalm 34:3 (NKJV)
Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.
David wrote this Psalm understanding that when we magnify the Lord, we get God’s perspective in our situations. When your heart gets in proximity to the heart of God, you’ll start to see the way God sees. So, when you are facing challenges that seem overwhelming you have to ask yourself am I closer to my challenges than I am to God? The closer you are to God, the smaller your problems become. The closer you are to your problems, the smaller God becomes. It’s not that He is changing, but your perspective is changing, thus changing the size of your faith.
You can live one of two ways:
1) The Microscope Perspective
Microscopes make tiny things look much bigger than they are. They help us even see details of infinitesimal organisms that are too small for the human eye alone. This is great for science but terrible for our spirituality. We end up creating spiritual microscopes that make our small problems look insurmountable. When we are telling God how big our problems are instead of telling our problems how big our God is we have started to see things through a spiritual microscope. This kind of thinking limits our faith to deal with the problems. Your response to problems will determine your ability to overcome them.
2) The Telescope Perspective
Telescopes help us see massive objects up close. They enable us to see something too big for our human eyes. Telescope type faith allows us to see God’s infinite power in our challenging circumstances. It brings God’s perspective to us. Jesus prayed, “Your Kingdome come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” He was using a telescope type perspective to see Heaven’s power on earth. We too need a telescoping perspective so more faith will arise within us. The greater of faith, the lesser our problems. Not because we won’t have them, but because they won’t have us.
Change your perspective today and lean into God’s presence. Remember the closer you are to God, the smaller your challenges become.
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