Eternal Perspective

It is Family Bible Week at our church. We have had the privilege of hearing the speaker two times already, and there are three more nights! What a blessing it has already proven to be. Tonight the speaker spoke on having an eternal perspective. (He was reading out James 1:1-4). This was a great reminder for me. It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day 'things' and only think about the 'now'. As the speaker stated it, we get caught up in the weeds in our life...all the busyness, trials, victories, and just day to day circumstances. He talked about trials (vs. 2...Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds). It says whenever you face trials, meaning we WILL face them. And when we do, we are to consider it joy. Verses 3 and 4 say, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. In school, taking a test was to prove what we learned. Spiritually, the testing we go through is to prove our spiritual depth. Are we going to persevere through our testing and become mature (steadfast), or are we going to fall apart and let the devil get ahold of us? He also talked about having the right attitude through our trials. None of us are going to jump up and down in excitement when a trial comes our way. But, if we have an eternal perspective, we can say, "God, I trust you and know that You are working in this situation. You are in control and I trust that you will work this out how You see it working best in my life." Complaining will get us no where. It will actually cloud our vision and cause us not to see what God wants to do in our lives. One last quote from the speaker that really impacted me was this..."Those who have confidence in God will value character above pleasure and eternity above the present." What a good reminder.