25 Nov The View (Because What Gets Your Attention Gets You) Part 4

Last week, we continued to discuss “6 Very Vivacious Viewpoints Verifying the Vitality of the View”:

1. What I continually see…affects me (Matt. 12:33-35).

2. What I continually see affects my priority (Matt. 6:22)

Let’s pick up where we left off:

When you understand that God’s view is to bless and encourage others then we quickly understand that our eyes should be doing the same thing!  The Bible says in Proverbs 22:9, “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he gives of his bread to the poor”.  When we see that God’s eyes are generous and searching for someone to bless, then we begin to have a generous eye searching for someone to bless!  That’s when life gets really fun!

Four summers ago, Anne and I went on vacation with two of our best friends in ministry.  We were eating in one of my favorite restaurants because it is decorated wall to wall with sports paraphernalia of my favorite college football team!  We were just having a great time having fun, laughing and talking about the things of the Lord.  Now there was a woman seated next to us all by herself.  She sheepishly leaned her head over towards us and asked, “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.  Are you all Christians?”  To which we of course responded emphatically, “Yes!”

She went on to tell us that she used to do the very same thing we were presently doing…going out to eat after church with her Christian friends, fellowshipping, laughing and having a great time.  She missed that and hadn’t done that for years.  This precious lady then began to pour her heart out with tears and emotion.  It turned out that she had been the pastor’s wife of a very large church that had eighty more churches in its care.  Many years before, she and her husband had pioneered this mega-church from nothing to one of the largest churches in her state.

After many years of ministry together, her husband suddenly died.  Not too long after his death, while this pastor’s wife was still grieving, the elders in the church were seeking a new pastor.  In a very unkind and unsupportive way, they forced her out of the church (that she and her husband founded from scratch) with no compensation whatsoever.  Now, she was dealing with both grief and the tremendous hurt that was inflicted upon her by the callous Christians who she had previously given so much to.

Well, needless to say, Anne and I and our ministry friends just circled the wagons and began to love on her, encourage her and minister to her.  She could not stop crying right in the middle of that restaurant as waves of healing crashed over her soul.  We believe it was an absolute healing and turning point for this special woman of God.

Now, if we had been self-consumed and thought “we are on vacation” or “I’m off the clock”, this woman would have left in the “darkness of soul” she was experiencing.  However, because our view of God was so good, our view of this woman was so good!  When you see the eyes of God reflecting with deep love in His eyes back at you, it’s so easy to have the same eyes of love for others!

Remember this, what gets your attention…gets you!  Next week we’ll continue our discussion!