In the last issue of REAL Women! We began with the question, "Perspective, Perspective, Who's got the Perspective?" We had many positive responses to the article, and I felt the need to explore the topic more completely. As I meditated on the subject several ideas began to unfold. First of all, why does it matter if we have God's perspective? The Bible is full of people who walked it both ways. For example, Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron: We first hear of her when the infant Moses was placed in a basket on the Nile and his sister (not named here) watched from a distance; when the baby was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, the sister offered to find a Hebrew wet nurse and fetched Moses' mother. After the Exodus, Miriam had a prominent position among the women. Exodus 15:20-21 records her leading the women in the victory song after the events at the Red Sea.

Miriam is called a prophetess in this passage.. She later considered her prophecy equal to that of Moses. Then she and Aaron complained about the marriage of Moses to the Ethiopian woman (Num. 12). This is where Miriam began to lose God's perspective and pick up her own. So they (Aaron and Miriam) said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it. The Lord hears us when we compare ourselves among ourselves especially when we feel we could do better than they. Unfortunately, as a result of her actions, Miriam was struck with leprosy and had to endure the humiliation of being shut out of the camp for one week. Miriam had been a great blessing and part of God's plan for the deliverance of Israel from the bondage in Egypt. When she began to puff herself up into a place Of equality with Moses and his position of leadership, however she got herself and Aaron in trouble. Jealousy and pride moves in when humility and security move out. This leads us to a very unstable platform on which to judge circumstances and people. I imagine this whole incident colored others opinion of her also. When we make decisions due to a lost Godly perspective we have to bear the consequences.

Saul, another of God's chosen servants lost God's perspective when he was waiting for Elijah. Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel,- but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings." And Saul offered up the burnt offering. Lo just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. " "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD'sfavor.'So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." "You acted foolishly, " Samuel said "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command " I Samuel 13:7-14

Saul, walking in nervous insecurity took upon himself a position that was not his to take. He lost his position as leader simply because he thought he could step around God's commandments and laws. We must not let fear influence our decisions.

God calls us to be faith walkers- women who walk by faith, live by faith and grow in our faith. I believe one of the reasons Saul responded as he did, was because he saw the bunt offering more as a talismans good luck offering, rather than the sincere sacrifice to the God of Israel. He did not have the same relationship with God that David grew to have. David and God were friends. One way to keep our perspective is to walk with our God every day, to seek out His friendship, to begin to know His heart. That will secure us in our position as leaders so that we will be able to stay obedient to His voice and will even if others begin to question our position.

Here are some steps for finding and keeping God's perspective.

First, we must establish in our heart and mind that He does have a perspective and that it most likely will be different than ours!

Isaiah 55:8-9
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways, "says the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."

Unless we let go of the pride in our hearts that automatically tells us our thoughts are at least close to His thoughts, we are in danger of not even asking to see things from His perspective. The heart of man is desperately wicked and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our thoughts under submission. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

Notice the scripture says we are to take every thought captive? This takes a determined, disciplined and consistent effort. The enemy of our soul wants to keep us from discovering and then keeping God's perspectives in our life. The enemy will use our past hurts, disappointments, and fears in an attempt to prevent us from walking in faith and encouragement. He will try to use worldly logic. Even simple situations can throw us off our guard.

Consider this scenario: two women are standing in the back of the sanctuary talking. A third walks by-at that moment the first two break off their conversation and walk off. If the third party is feeling insecure, she may automatically view the break in the conversation was due to the fact they were talking about her and feel it was in a negative way. If she was feeling strong and coming from a platform where she felt God's love and acceptance, she might not have even noticed, or simply thought they were done. Have you ever been in that situation? Emotionally judging a situation? I must admit, I have. I have experienced both sides. One way to avoid reacting in this manner would be to apply God's Word. Corinthians 13: 4-7 Love is patient, love is kind It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

If we walk in love, hoping and believing the best about others, we will always be walking in God's perspective. Women in leadership are women who influence others. We grow in our ability to look at things from God's perspective.

To discover God's perspective we must look where He is looking. Lot and his family were cautioned not to look back, we are encouraged in Isaiah 51:1 to "look to the rock from which you were cut", Hebrews exhorts us to "look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith". These are our clear instructions. When we need help, we are not to first look to self-help books, TV talk show hosts, or our Aunt Hortense, but unto Jesus, our Lord.

One definition of the word, "look" is to direct the sight with attention. In other words, we have control over where we look. As we set our hearts and our minds to focus on Him, our perspectives will remain right and accurate and we will be able to accomplish the task He has set our hands to do.

Submitted by: Martha Rodman