What Are You Watching?

I am beginning to realize that one of the things I miss most about life on the West Coast is Pacific Standard Time!  I guess that kind of makes sense since I spent over fifty years of my life living in it!  When we returned to our home town after our jaunt in Oklahoma, I got into the habit of watching the local sports report show at 5:00 pm each night as I prepared our dinner.  It kept me up to date on my favorite teams and prepped the way for whatever Giants or Warriors game might be on that night.  I tried to get that channel on our Directv package out here, but alas, it wasn’t available!

So instead of West Coast sports updates, I have occasionally been watching one of the national weather channels as I get our evening meal ready.  This has been kind of interesting as I am trying to figure out the local weather patterns.  I still am amazed at how the worst of the weather that swirls around the central and east coast of our country seem to by-pass North Carolina! 

Yesterday’s reports told of the unusually early cold/artic front that has come in from Canada.  The Meteorologist’s reported how it was affecting all the states from Michigan to Florida and over to Georgia.  My son reported on his Facebook page over the weekend that they had snow in Tulsa!  But yet all of this extreme cold tends to go around where we live!  Don’t get me wrong, we've had some cold temperatures but nothing compared to regions all around us.

What I also noticed as I watched the weather program last night was how they really seemed to pounce on all the negative aspects of the storms.  (Although they did have one short clip of a Husky having a good time and frolicking in the snow!)  After a while I had to shut the show off due to all the fear that was being projected!  It got me to consider how many folks like to dwell on the negative aspects of life.  It was also clear that negative news sells papers and draws viewers to the news TV channels or online websites.

I noticed that I was feeling kind of down with a hint of apprehension with the coming of winter.  So with that in mind, I shouted out across the room to my wife that “we are having the best, most enjoyable winter season that we have ever had!”  This was one of the things that my wife would confess about most of the holidays as they approached throughout the year, so I knew that she would agree with me!

Later that night as we were watching a Christian teaching program that was talking about the superabundant provision of God, I suddenly jumped up from the couch with the revelation of how much the hearing of God’s Word was encouraging, fortifying and blessing me!  What a difference what you’re watching can make!  I think my wife most have thought I was a little crazy as I stood there pointing to the TV saying “See!  See!”  When I finally calmed down I was able to complete my sentence adding, “It IS all about what your eyes are on that counts!”

What a difference the focus on the truth of God’s Words makes compared to the repeated dwelling on the negative of what is happening around us!  I’m sure most of you know this already, but those two TV shows were quite a vivid example of that truth.  By keeping our eyes on what can go wrong in any situation in life we rob ourselves of hope, of joy and of growing in the intimate knowledge of God’s love for us!  Matthew 6:21 tells us that “Your heart will be where your treasure is.” (God’s Word ©)

I discovered last night that when my heart was focused on the goodness and truth of God’s Word, I was at peace and confident in God’s love for me.  That I was confident in His unfailing care for me and mine and expectant of His “exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.” (Ephesians 3:20 KJV)  But the opposite was true when I focused on the natural reports.  Those natural reports tended to put a ceiling on my options.  The super-natural reports of God’s Word though, sprung me through the ceiling of my natural understanding and sent me sky-rocketing into the limitless boundaries of God’s Supernatural!  Where do you want to be?

Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What or Who’s boundaries am I expecting to be in today?”