A Matter of Perspective

I checked in this morning with Experiencing God, the day-by-day devotional not the book that I'm currently reading. Today's topic was Furthering the Gospel.

There are two ways to look at every situation: How it will affect you, and how it will affect God's kingdom. The apostle Paul was always concerned with how his circumstances might aid the spreading of the gospel... Regardless of his circumstance, Paul's concern was how he could use his current situation to tell others of God's good news of salvation.

Often, when we encounter a new situation, our first thoughts are not about God's kingdom... If we remain self-centred we will miss so much of what God could do through our experiences...

This puts me in mind of something that I've found myself saying a lot just recently. Isn't it funny how when non-believers face a crisis they start to pray, whereas believers tend to stop? Isn't is strange than when times get tough, the first thing many Christians do is stop coming to church, whereas non-Christians might just start?

Why is it that when the going gets tough we are so ready to give up?

Perhaps those tough, challenging and even irritating circumstances that you currently face could be so much more positively used for the sake of the kingdom if only you will adjust your perspective a little.