God's Point Of View

In this episode, Sarita Allen discusses the importance of aligning our perspectives with God's point of view. She emphasizes the need for faith, the power of seeing through the eyes of faith, and the significance of waiting with hope. Through biblical examples and scripture, she encourages listeners to trust in God's plan and to seek joy in every step of their journey.

Takeaways:

• Surrendering to God's way requires faith.
• Point of view (POV) is crucial in understanding our experiences.
• God wants our insights to align with His.
• Seeing through the eyes of faith reveals divine purpose.
• Trusting God's promises helps us navigate challenging situations.
• The eyes of our hearts need to be enlightened.
• God's perspective is broader than ours.
• Faith allows us to see beyond the physical.
• Waiting with hope is essential for believers.
• We should actively seek joy in our journey.

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Episode Transcript

Introduction (00:03):
Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine
encouragement. This is Joy inEvery Step with your host,
beloved preacher, retiredteacher, and faithful faithful
servant of the Lord, SaritaBernadette. Each week, Sarita
shares heartfelt messages rootedin the word of God, filled with

(00:24):
wisdom, joy, and the gentlereminder that God cares deeply
for you. Whether you're walkingthrough the valleys or dancing
on the mountaintops, Sarita'svoice will guide you back to his
promises step by step. So openyour heart, settle your spirit,
take and the next step in faithwith joy in every step.

Sarita Bernadette (00:54):
Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette and welcome
back to another episode of Joyin Every Step. I'm glad you're
here. In the last episode, welooked at surrendering to
healing and doing it God's way.Surrendering to God's way of

(01:16):
doing things requires faith.
Yes, faith is the substance ofthings hoped for and the
evidence of things not seen.Your faith is what you have
while you wait for God to dowhat only He can do. Faith

(01:36):
requires a change inperspective. Has anyone else
noticed the trend on socialmedia related to point of view?
Point of view.
Simply put, point of view or POVis the position from which

(01:56):
something is seen or observed.Across social media, POV or
point of view is this trendwhere creators use text on the
screen to indicate that you, theviewer, will be experiencing the

(02:19):
content from a specificperspective. You're probably
seeing it everywhere, I know Iam. The technique popular on
platforms like Facebook, TikTok,Instagram, they, it puts the
viewer in the shoes of acharacter in a relatable or

(02:40):
imaginative situation making thecontent more personal or
engaging. So many social mediainfluencers have mastered this
technique and it caused me tothink about how much we have
come to value and rely on ourown point of view or our own

(03:05):
perspective on things.
Everyone has an opinion abouteverything these days, right?
Well, I wondered what God thinksabout all of that and of course
there are some answers in hisword. Many of us know this
scripture by heart. Trust in theLord with all your heart and

(03:28):
lean not on your ownunderstanding. In all your ways
acknowledge him and he shalldirect your paths.
That's Proverbs three, five andsix. The message version of that
same scripture reads like this,Trust God from the bottom of
your heart. Don't try to figureout everything on your own.

(03:54):
Listen for God's voice ineverything you do, everywhere
you go. He's the one who willkeep you on track.
I love that. The amplifiedclassic says, Do not rely on
your own insight orunderstanding. Your own insight

(04:17):
or understanding. It's clearthat God wants our insights and
our understanding, ourperspective if you will, our
point of view to agree with His,to align with His. God is the
Creator.
He is sovereign. It's all aboutHis plan and His purpose. He is

(04:43):
the narrator of this story.However, we do have a say we
have free will and therefore wehave some decisions to make
about how all of this goes.Scripture calls on believers to
adopt God's point of view byconsistently renewing our minds

(05:06):
and seeking his wisdom.
Many times in order to make thathappen we have to activate our
faith. Have you ever heard theexpression seeing through the
eyes of faith? Seeing throughthe eyes of faith is a
perspective that allowsbelievers to see the truth, to

(05:30):
see reality and divine purposebeyond what our physical senses
can detect. This happens when wetrust God's promises We trust in
his power. We trust in his wordeven through situations even
though situations seem tough.

(05:53):
We trust him. Second Corinthiansfour sixteen through 18, this is
The Message version reads likethis, So we're not giving up.
How could we? Even though on theoutside it often looks like
things are falling apart on us,on the inside where God is

(06:14):
making a new life, out a daygoes by without his unfolding
grace. These hard times aresmall potatoes compared to the
coming good times, the lavishcelebration prepared for us.
There's far more here than meetsthe eye, it says. The things we

(06:37):
see now are here today, gonetomorrow, but the things we
can't see now will last forever.This verse directly calls on us
as believers to shift our focusfrom the physical and the
temporary to the spiritual andeternal realities that faith

(06:58):
reveals. Yes, faith. Faith.
So what is God's point of view?Are we familiar with it? Let's
talk a little bit about ourpoint of view versus God's point
of view and ask yourself thequestion, are they aligned? Are

(07:18):
they in alignment? Or is yourpoint of view in alignment with
God's point of view?
The whole concept is rooted inpassages like Ephesians one and
eighteen which speaks of theeyes of your understanding being
enlightened. Paul prays aboutthis when writing to the church

(07:39):
at Ephesus. He says he is askingGod to give them wisdom and
revelation as they come to knowHim. Here it is, Ephesians one
eighteen through 19, So thatwith the eyes of your heart
enlightened, you may perceivewhat is the hope to which He has

(08:02):
called you, what are theglorious riches of His
inheritance among the saints,and what is the immeasurable
greatness of His power for uswho believe according to the
working of His great power. Theeyes of our hearts refers to our

(08:23):
inner being which includes ourmind, our will, and our
emotions.
The writer here wants us to beconfident of our salvation and
excited about the wonderfulfuture that awaits us and he's
not just talking about heavenhe's talking about our future

(08:45):
right here on earth on this sideof heaven. There's a story in
the sixth chapter of secondKings and it involves the Old
Testament prophet Elisha. In anutshell, it's about a time when
he sees a divine army protectinghim from a physical one. Now

(09:08):
just a little background on thisaccounting which take takes
place during the mid to latenineteenth century BC. The
prophet Elisha has angered theking of Aram.
One translation uses the wordperturbed. The king is perturbed

(09:29):
with Elisha because he is ableto hear from God about the
king's next place of attack andElisha then goes and warns the
people to avoid that place.Therefore thereby avoiding an
attack from the king. So, theking of Aram finds out where

(09:51):
Elisha is and he sends horsesand chariots and a whole army
there to surround the city atnight. Verse 15 reads, When an
attendant of the man of God roseearly in the morning and went
out, an army with horses andchariots was all around the

(10:13):
city.
His servant said, Alas, master,what shall we do? And he
replied, Do not be afraid, forthere are more with us than
there are with them. Verse 17reads, Then Elisha prayed, O
Lord, please open his eyes thathe may see. So the lord opened

(10:36):
the eyes of the servant and hesaw. The mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire allaround Elisha.
Elisha saw those horses andchariots through the eyes of
faith or one might say he sawthe situation from God's point

(10:56):
of view and he prayed that hisservant would also see what he
saw he said open his eyes Openhis eyes, Lord. What if we
prayed that kind of prayer? Whatif we use some of the scriptures
in the Word of God that remindus of that very thing? What if

(11:22):
we said open our eyes Lord, wewant to see what you see.
Scriptures emphasizing God'spoint of view reveal his
thoughts are higher than ours,that he sees the big picture and
that his plans work throughhuman actions to bring about his
will.
There's another term that isoften used interchangeably with

(11:46):
point of view and that isviewpoint. Viewpoint can indeed
be one's belief or attitudeabout something but it can also
refer to the location from whichsomething is seen. We're still
talking about perspective butjust in a different way. Make

(12:09):
this slight shift with me here.Let's look at a few scriptures
to help us understand this justa bit better.
Isaiah 55 verses eight throughnine For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, nor are your waysmy ways, says the Lord. For as
the heavens are higher than theearth, so are my ways higher

(12:34):
than your ways and my thoughtsthan your thoughts. I believe
these verses highlight theinfinite difference between
God's ways and our ways. Theytell us that God's wisdom and
his perspective are beyond humancomprehension. He's letting us

(12:56):
know that he can see afar offwhen we can only see so far.
Right? But we can be confidentin this scripture also Romans
eight twenty eight. Romans eighttwenty eight assures us that
everything works together forgood for those who love God.

(13:17):
That verse says everything, noexceptions. In order to proclaim
that everything is workingtogether, God must have a better
view than we do.
It must mean that God sees thebig picture and if we want to
see more of what he sees, we'llhave to lean into him and his

(13:41):
word. So long ago and far awayfriends, when we were teaching
young children about how to readmaps, remember those maps, paper
maps, wow. We would begin withsomething called the bird's eye
view. A bird's eye view is theview from above or it's an

(14:04):
elevated view, elevated. It'sthe view from an elevated
position or a view from aperspective as if one were a
bird flying overhead.
Yes, an aerial view. Now imagineif you can, how much higher

(14:24):
God's view must be. Yes, He'sable to see it all. God's view,
God's angle is such that he cansee everything clearly. And of
course, I'm speaking in aspiritual sense here, but just
think about that.
When considering God'sviewpoint, it could be described

(14:46):
as as as panoramic as well.You've heard that word before. A
panoramic view is a broadsweeping and unbroken
perspective such that one cansee in all directions without
obstruction. A clear viewfriends, a vast view. First
Corinthians two and nine reads,But as it is written, eye has

(15:10):
not seen nor ear heard nor haveentered into the heart of man
the things which God hasprepared for those who love him.
This emphasizes that what Godhas in store for believers is
beyond what humans can currentlysee or even imagine. You can't

(15:32):
talk about God's point of viewor his viewpoint here without
mentioning Joshua and Caleb. OhJoshua and Caleb, you might be
familiar with this story fromthe Old Testament. It takes
place during the Israelites'journey to the promised land
after the exodus from Egypt.It's in numbers fourteen six

(15:54):
through nine here that I'm gonnabe reading from, and it says,
Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb,son of Jephunah, who were among
those who had spied out theland, tore their clothes and
said to all the congregation ofthe Israelites, the land that we
went through as spies is anexceedingly good land.

(16:19):
If the Lord is pleased with us,he will bring us into this land
and give it to us. A land thatflows with milk and honey. Verse
nine, only do not rebel againstthe Lord and do not fear the
people of the land for they areno more than bread for us. Their
protection is removed from themand the Lord is with us. Do not

(16:43):
fear them.
So these verses tell us aboutJoshua and Caleb who were two
Israelite men who along with 10others were chosen by Moses to
go and spy on the land of Canaanbefore the Israelites actually
entered it. So, basically we'retold basically they're told

(17:04):
rather you go in and look aroundfor us then you come back and
you give us a report. While theother spies returned with a
negative report talking aboutthe giants living there and the
large fortified cities, Joshuaand Caleb delivered a positive
one, stressing God's power togive them the victory and to

(17:28):
conquer that land. Because oftheir faith, Joshua and Caleb
were the only ones from theirgeneration allowed to enter the
promised land. Joshua eventuallyled the next generation in.
Here's the promise in Numbers 14verse 24, But my servant Caleb,

(17:52):
because he has a differentspirit and has followed me
wholeheartedly, I will bring himinto the land into which he
went, and his descendants shallpossess it. Later in that same
book of Numbers we read that dueto their disobedience and their

(18:13):
stubbornness the children ofIsrael were sentenced to wander
in the wilderness for fortyyears. So it's mentioned in
Scripture that Caleb was indeed85 years old when they entered
the Promised Land. So, he andJoshua had to wait. They had to

(18:33):
wait like the rest of thepeople.
But I imagine, in my holyimagination, that there was a
difference in their waitingversus the rest of the
Israelites. Based on theirattitude, after seeing what was
in the land and tasting thefruit based on the encouraging
report that they brought back, Ibelieve they chose to wait with

(18:57):
hope. I mean, they could havegone it could have gone another
way, I mean they could havebecome discouraged with the long
wait, they could have becomebitter having experienced Canaan
for that short period of timebut because they saw the land
through the eyes of faith fromGod's point of view, I believe

(19:19):
they remembered what it was liketo be in that land that God had
promised them. I believe theywaited with great anticipation.
Believers, let's seek to see andunderstand things from God's
point of view.
He sees far beyond what we seeand his perspective is one

(19:42):
filled with hope and joy. Let'slook for the joy friends. Let's
look for the joy. You've beenlistening to Joy in Every Step.
I'm Sarita Bernadette and I amgrateful you chose to spend some
time here with me.
You can find Joy in Every Stepwherever you listen to your

(20:04):
podcasts and give us a followthere. Do check out the website
at joyineverystep.org.