Do you see it has half FULL? Or do you see it as half EMPTY?
The answer to that question dictates whether you are more of an OPTIMIST or a PESSIMIST.
It's all about how we perceive something. There is no right or wrong answer here. Both are simultaneously correct in their own right. We don't know what makes one person more optimistic than another person. In our world we need BOTH kinds of people to balance things out. We need the pessimist to tell us to save our money because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe a job loss or an injury/sickness or maybe even death. We also need the optimist to use and spend our money because what is life if all we do is hoard our money and never enjoy it.
When we view God's word, the same optimist/pessimist views are often applied without us even knowing it. I think that most people who study the Bible already know at some level they are sinners and in need of forgiveness. We carry this view with us as we read the Bible and sometimes miss out on what God is really telling us.
Take for example this verse from Leviticus 19:2
‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
How does that make you feel when you read those words?
Does it strike some level of fear into your hearts?
Maybe it makes you feel a bit uneasy maybe even angry because it seems to be an achievable demand by God upon you. Me?? Holy?
But when we look at these words in context of the Bible these words seem less like a demand and more of a declaration by God on us. Take for example, Genesis 1:1, "Let there BE LIGHT, and there was light". God calls for light to be created and it is. Another example is when Jesus calms the storm
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves,
“Quiet! Be still!”Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”Jesus words to the wind have effect. When Jesus speaks, things happen. His words change things immediately. In another story, Jesus heals a man with leprosy (Luke 5)
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[b] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Jesus words of "Be clean!" changes the man immediately. No fancy incantation or magic words. Reality is what Jesus says it is!
Yet Jesus, being the very Word of God, is the same person speaking the words of Leviticus 19:2 to us. To me, God's words of "Be Holy" are not so much a demand but more of HIM declaring US to be Holy. What God speaks happens. We are HOLY because God declares us HOLY. God can only do this because he will be the one picking up the tab of all of our sins on the cross.
Prayer: Thank you God for declaring me HOLY in your sight and changing my life forever.
