By Zac Poonen
A very interesting Bible study that you could do on your own would be to study through the prayers of the Apostle Paul. There are many prayers of Paul from Romans to 2 Timothy, and you find all his prayers were always for spiritual things. He never prayed that these people would become rich, that they would have good houses to live in or they would advance in their jobs. He never prayed for any of these material things. He always prayed for deep eternal spiritual things, because Paul was so gripped in his heart that everything on this earth was for a short period.
It’s like if you were taking a journey to Delhi and were going to settle down in Delhi for the next 50 years. Someone who is praying for you should not be spending most of his time praying for the train journey to Delhi, that you would have a comfortable time, and that you eat good food and wear good clothing in the train and sleep peacefully. He should be praying more that you should live in Delhi happily for a long time. So you see that our life on earth is only a short journey to eternity. Paul was praying that they would live on earth in such a way that when they got into eternity they would have no regrets.
In Col. 1:9, Apostle Paul prayed that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. One translation of this verse says, “I am praying that you will look at things from God’s point of view.” To have an understanding of the knowledge of His will in all spiritual understanding and wisdom means that you will look at everything from God’s point of view.
When you think of your human body, don’t listen to all that the philosophers in the world are saying, look at it from God’s view point. Jesus came from a human body. So don’t despise it. Look at everything in life from God’s point of view. That’s a good prayer to pray for ourselves. “Lord, help me to see everything that happens in my life, from Your viewpoint.”
How do I look at that particular circumstance that came into my life, that particular sickness, that thorn in the flesh, that person who is treating me badly? See it from God’s viewpoint. Did it surprise God when that thing happened? It didn’t surprise God. It did surprise me, because I am a human being limited by time and space. But God was not surprised, and when I move back or move up to God’s viewpoint I find my heart comes to rest and many things on earth look very different. It’s a very good prayer to pray.
If you can build a church where people have learned to look at things from God’s viewpoint, you have got a spiritual church.