More than likely, you have seen those pictures where more than one image is portrayed. It just depends on how you look at the picture what you will see. So it is in life. As you view what is going on in your world, you will see something good or something evil depending on how you “look at the picture.” If you view life through the eyes of faith in Jesus Christ, even the seemingly ominous things can only be seen as good.
Just a little over 8 years ago, I suffered a mild heart attack that led to having triple by-pass surgery. I looked forward to the surgery as an opportunity to experiences the grace of God like I had never had before- and I did experience it. Last November I contracted the Covid virus, but God’s grace was once again more than sufficient to see me through. Afterwards, I was experiencing a little shortness of breath and my PCP sent me for a chest X-ray. It showed a little scarring of the lungs but nothing too significant. It also showed that my heart was enlarged. My cardiologist sent me to the hospital for a CT scan of my lungs, fearing a pulmonary embolism. The scan revealed no embolism, but it also was wide enough that it caught a lesion on my right kidney. So now I needed a CT scan on the kidney, which revealed a mass just smaller than a golf ball in size. The urologist has scheduled surgery to remove the kidney. But before the urologist can operate, he requested a catheterization of heart just to make sure there will be no complications for surgery. The cath revealed that I have been living with a shunt between the left and right side of my heart. Apparently, it is congenital. Someone suggested that it might be good to do a scan of my brain, but they didn’t think that they would find anything there.
I have an MRI of my heart scheduled for the day before my surgery which will hopefully reveal all that is going on with my heart and whether any further surgery is needed. But regardless of what it reveals, I will once again be able to have an extra-ordinary experience of the sustaining grace of God. The Lord has given me a peace about all that is happening in my life and the peace is so great that I almost feel guilty about it. But the reason the peace is so great is that I so believe that the Lord has the situation under His control and no matter what happens, it will only eventuate good (Romans 8:28). Even the worst case, humanly speaking, death, results in good for me (Philippians 1:21-23).
There is a lot going on in the world today that should cause great concern, and for many it has caused great fear. Regardless of any ideology, few if any, believe that the world is getting better each day. But the eyes of unbelief fret and worry because they don’t see a God who is ultimately bringing His perfect will to pass. I wish I could bottle the peace I have about my immediate situation. If I could, I would send at least a six-pack to each of you. But obviously that is impossible. But I can point you to the source of my peace and that is Jesus Christ and His Word (John 14:27). But if it is to be effective for you, you must see it through the eyes of faith.
God’s peace does not mean that I pull an Alfred E. Newman and simply say, “What, me worry?” What it means is that I trust that after God has accomplished all that He intends to accomplish in my life in this situation, I will then continue to do what He wants me to accomplish for Him. I plan to be back in my office on Monday.