A few weeks ago I attended a Priscilla Shirer simulcast at a church in a neighboring town. At one point during the day she had everyone write a prayer request on a provided card. We were asked to put them in buckets on the stage in the front of the sanctuary. After we turned them in she told us that we were to pick up one or two as we left at the end of the day and pray for those requests during the next week.

I wrote on my card. ”In all that I do, say or think I want to immediately seek Your perspective.” I visualized that I would quickly and mentally run to God’s throne room, get His take on my situation and deal with it appropriately. Whoever had my request must have prayed because God provided me with His perspective of a volatile interchange. But it came a few days later. My prayer warrior needed to pray harder.

I had felt offended by a person and immediately reacted with “my” perspective. An apology was made and I shot back with, “ Do you think that your words have any meaning to me. You do this over and over.” So much for running to the throne room!

It wasn’t until a few days later, as I did my Bible study, that God gave me His perspective on “my” thoughts and words. I think that He probably got tired of waiting for me to come to Him about my outrage. He used John 13:34 and I John 1:9 to speak to me.

“The words of Christ in the middle of the first verse, “… love one another as I have loved you,” convicted me of not patiently loving the offending individual in the same way that Christ demonstrates His love towards me.

The individual had apologized but I was upset that the offense was repetitive. When the heat of the incident dissipated, I had to admit that I was treating the offense as sinful rather than what it was, insensitive. Looking up I John 1:9, I pounced on the phrase, “…confess our sins,” . The tense of the word “confess” means to confess each time sin occurs. God, knowing man’s nature, expects repetitive sinning. I do not, although I make an exception for myself.

God’s perspective of the incident was that I treated a thoughtless act against me as sin. The sin was mine, in not loving as Christ loves me.

I also take away from this experience that we need to help each other get rid of repetitive thoughtlessness and sin. We need to recognize these in our own lives and then develop a plan with God to root them out.

It is natural, not spiritual, to see repetitive, negative actions in others. If we do nothing, thoughts of these will fester and then lead to consequences – a blow-up, anger, depression, etc. To prevent this we first talk to God about them and allow Him to give us His perspective. If that does not handle the problem, He may want us to step in to graciously be a change agent; but before we do this, it’s best to study Galatians 6:1.

Do your thoughts, words and actions line up with God’s perspective of situations? It’s my prayer that yours are more closely aligned than mine were. Let’s keep working on being pure and blameless. We might as well accept that the task will be never ending until Christ returns or we go to be with Him.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)