Looking at Life Thru God's Glasses: Burdens or Blessings

LOOKING AT LIFE THRU GOD’S GLASSES: BURDENS OR BLESSINGS – PART 2

Looking at life through human glasses causes us to see burdens. Looking at life through God’s glasses helps us to see blessings. God says, “I will enjoy blessing them.” (Jer. 32:41) John writes, “From his abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.” (John 1:16)

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and indicated that he had a “thorn in the flesh.” It was a real burden to him. He prayed many times to have it removed, but that did not happen. (2 Cor. 12:7)

Then he began to look through God’s glasses and saw that his thorn in the flesh wasn’t a burden but a blessing. It was through that thorn in the flesh that he realized how weak he was, but how strong God was. It opened up to him a whole new way of seeing life. (2 Cor. 12:9)

Our greatest strength comes when we realize how weak we are. Always focusing on how strong we think we are keeps us out of the realm of the possibility of being how great we actually are by God’s grace.

My Sunday school teacher once told about the first bird that was created. The bird had some strange appendages out to his side. Every time he started to try to move, they got in the way. He had trouble walking. He had trouble getting near any other objects. He complained about the burden of those things and wondered why God had handicapped him with them.

Then a puff of wind came, and he lifted them to get his balance. All of a sudden, he discovered that those things on his side could be used to help him fly. What he thought was a burden was his blessing. It freed him up to be what God had created him to be.

Getting weighed down by complaining about our burdens will imprison us. Looking to see if that burden might be a blessing can free us up to become the people God has created us to be.

One day, a biologist watched an ant carrying a piece of straw. It was a huge burden for him, and he was hardly able to move it, but he continued forward.

Then the ant came to a crack in the sidewalk which was too big to cross. He seemed to stand for a while and ponder the situation. He put the straw down across the crack and walked over it. He then picked up the straw and continued on his way. The straw wasn’t a burden, it was a blessing.

I read about a village of Indians who were attacked. They were courageously fighting with their backs to the swift river and could only escape by crossing the river.

The villagers gathered up the oldest, the youngest, and the weakest members. The strong ones placed the weak ones on their shoulders and risked wading into the swift current of the river. They knew it was dangerous because they had seen people swept away by the swift water.

They crossed the river safely because the weight of the burdens on their shoulders kept them from losing their balance and their footing. Carrying the extra burdens allowed them to cross the swift stream while their enemies who pursued them were swept away by the current.

Are you willing to see burdens become blessings?