Do You See People The Way God Sees Them?

Wouldn’t it be great to see people the way God sees them? Wouldn’t it also be great to see yourself like God sees you? I am learning that there is no better way to learn God’s viewpoint on my “humanness” than when I get offended. Seriously. No one has ever offended us as much as we have offended God.  (Jesus taught this lesson in the parable of the two servants in Matthew 18:21-35.) I don’t want to violate God’s love and add my sin—to my offender’s sin, do you? 

But it’s hard, isn’t it? 

Well, of course it is! Especially when we are reminded of the offense over and over again. But if we are determined to fight back against the enemies who want to crush us—we MUST allow God to realign our thinking. I want to think more like HE does, don’t you? Ya’ll have heard many of my silly examples, like the 4 trillion bank account video, but when I’m struggling, God is so good to give me visuals that help me line-up my thinking with His Word!

In this instance, God gave me an image of a caged lion under a huge dark bridge…

The cage was just barely big enough for the lion to stand up. It wasn’t even large enough for him to stretch or walk. There was no sunshine. The only water was a culvert running under his cage from the dirty street above, where any rain water was often polluted by raw sewage overflowing into the street. His master fed him scraps of putrid food that barely kept him alive. He was living—just to die a slow miserable death. 

But here is the kicker—His cage had a rear-door and—it was welded OPEN. 

Even his cursed master couldn’t close it. His path to freedom was wide open! A couple of times, I walked by the cage in order to convince him to turn around and see the door. I felt so sorry for Him! He became angry, lashed out with his claws, and even drew blood. Another time he simply ignored me—seeming either too weak to care, or too fixated on the rotten meal set before him. It seemed like he had been in the cage for so long that he was blind to the goodness within his grasp. All he had to do was turn around. It was almost like he thought the lush jungle beyond his cage was merely a delusion!

Ah, how good God is to give us His perspective! 

We were once that lion. When we decided to repent (turn around in the cage) and receive God’s free gift of salvation—we found true, everlasting freedom. When we are born again, we may live enlightened by the Holy Spirit to the sad plight of those still in the cage—even when they hurt us! As God leads and strengthens us, we can have compassion on others because–He has compassion on us. Those who are slaves cannot take away our greatest gift—our eternal life! Sure, if we try to help those who are slaves to sin, sometimes we will get hurt. But we don’t have to be angry with them—even if they occasionally draw blood. It is also wrong to retaliate and get in the cage with them! God rescued us from the cage of sin—we should never want to go back!

Why would we EVER do that?  

My friend, no person can rob us of the peace, joy, love, wisdom, and strength of God—unless we let them. Sure, the caged lion can injure us, but no slave has the power to take away the precious presence of God. When someone mistreats us—even a person claiming to be a Christian—we must remember that GOD is our protector and defender—not us! He welded that gate open so that we could repent and surrender our life to Him. We have been freed to live in the freedom that we were born for. He will show us how close we should get to the cage to help the person inside. If that enslaved person either doesn’t think they have a choice, or, they are not willing to turn around and follow Jesus out of the cage—we should have compassion. We should pray. And most importantly—if they hurt us—we MUST forgive them. Otherwise, we’re playing with sin and subjecting ourselves to the misery of our enemies.  

Forgiveness bridges the gap between sin and enduring love.

Forgiveness can be such a long, hard lesson—but what freedom we discover when we do it! Remember, we have 4 trillion to spend! Knowing God and experiencing His love is so critical for changing our thinking about how to treat those who mistreat us. Our relationship with God gives us a choice; and we don’t have to return evil for evil. 

If we are FREE, why would we ever need to retaliate against a SLAVE?

Sin enslaves; Jesus frees. Jesus said:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

John 8:34-36 NKJV

Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death!

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Romans 8:2 NKJV

God is love; and when we know how much we are loved by Him—we desire to grow closer to that love—not further away. We don’t want to be back in that cage. We love the freedom of God’s presence! We have compassion for the plight of our offender because we remember our own awful imprisonment. We also know the horrible, permanent hell that lies ahead of those that have not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior! No matter what their offense against us—if Christ is in us, we don’t want their current hell to become an eternal one! 

We all serve a master—either the master of darkness who keeps us caged; or the Master of Righteousness, Who sets us free!

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Romans 6:16-18 NKJV

We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.

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