A major objective of The Bible is to help us establish a true perspective. You might hear this described as a “Biblical worldview”. Scripture is trying to tell us what is real – who God is, who we are, and how the world operates.
The perspective we choose helps inform everything about us. It illumines our attitude. It determines our actions and is the undercurrent of our emotions.
The key to a proper perspective is accepting that God is God. We have a role to play – we are “sheep in his pasture” – but we are not God. As your parents might have said, the world doesn’t revolve around you.
To our individualistic and ego-centric flesh, this seems like bad news. But it is actually great news. We do not have to bear the ultimate weight of existence. We don’t have to know everything. We don’t, in short, have to be perfect. Being sheep of His pasture allows us the room to try and fail, the room to be human. We are called to participate, influence, and affect reality. We are given resources and opportunities to steward our part well. Understanding that God is the Shepherd of the pasture, and we are sheep under his guidance and care, is the key to activating our engagement with reality effectively.
Most of our frustration, pain, and struggle comes when we (or someone around us) confuse reality and think we might be able to run a better pasture. The key to the Biblical worldview, the true perspective of reality, is to acknowledge that we are God’s, to trust Him, and to follow Him through the green pastures of possibility.