In my apartment, one of the amenities featured is "nine-foot ceilings." The idea is simple: the higher the ceiling, the more spacious the space feels. Have you ever been in a house with, say, seven foot ceilings? It feels like the ceiling is sitting on your head. Although you gain no real extra living space, a higher ceiling changes your attitude.
In Genesis 15, God makes a startling promise to Abraham: "God took Abraham outside and said, 'Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" Its easy to read through this and catch what God said and totally miss what God did. Did you see it? God took Abraham outside.
What difference does that make? Abraham was sitting around inside, looking up at the ceiling of his tent. So God took him on a little excursion to go stargazing. I wonder how long it took for my man to finish his project of counting the stars. You think God proved his point after Abraham lost count for the fifteenth time, or did he have to try more cause he was a little hardheaded? Regardless, Abraham learned a lesson he would never forget and the stars served as nightly reminders of God's promise.
Why did God take him outside? As long as Abraham was inside his tent, his vision of future possibilities was blocked by this man-made ceiling. We have the same problem. We lose perspective when we allow negative circumstances to obscure the promises of God. When you focus and complain about what you don't have, you lose sight of the vision of the future that God wants to create in and through you.
So, what's blocking your vision? Worry, envy, impatience....? Maybe its time to step outside your tent of negativity to regain the proper perspective. God wanted to remind Abraham of just how big He was. I think God was saying, "Don't put a seven-foot (or even a nine foot) ceiling on what I can do."
~Pastor Josh
No comments:
Post a Comment