In The Prince of Egypt, there’s this big musical number titled “Through Heaven’s Eyes”. The entire point of the song is that unless we are looking at our lives through God’s eyes (or Heaven’s eyes), we won’t be able to find the greater purpose that our lives hold in the tapestry of God’s plans. This led me to ask myself: What would my self-worth be like if I actually saw my life through God’s eyes?

These past few weeks, I’ve been reflecting on my friendships, especially the way I view my friendships. As I talked with my mom and processed some frustrations, I realized that most of my disappointments have more to do with how I view myself than with how other people treat me. As we talked in the car, I ended up saying something that surprised me: “I believe that I’m someone people won’t choose.”

This stopped me in my tracks. Where did that thought come from? As I processed my feelings, I externalized a thought (or lie) that I have been believing for many years now. Somewhere along the way, I adopted the belief that I wasn’t good enough simply being me, but rather I needed to work harder to earn the good opinion and acceptance of others.

Is this true? No. But years of believing a lie and seeing my life through that lie have skewered my perception. Rather than seeing my life through “Heaven’s eyes”, I’ve been looking at it through my own faulty perception.

I’m sure that all of us have lies we are believing, and even some we haven’t realized we are believing. So how do we learn to look at our life through God’s eyes?

How Do We Adopt God’s Perception?

As I mentioned in last week’s post, in fiction, character arcs are all about the journey a character takes from believing a lie to believing a truth and embracing it. I believe the same goes for us in real life. We grow when we discover a lie, seek the truth, and embrace it. So the journey to see our life through God’s eyes means we first identify a lie, we bring it to God, we ask for His truth, and then we pursue it.

Let’s start with identifying a lie.

How Do You Identify a Lie?

Many times identifying a lie can be very obvious (like myself saying something out loud and immediately realizing it’s not true). But other times, it can be really difficult to figure out what is true and what isn’t. So how do we identify lies?

The best way to identify a lie is to become so acquainted with truth that anything that slightly deviates from it is immediately suspect. Think about it like an art authenticator. Authenticators study mainly authentic art, in order to distinguish genuine works from fakes. They may also study common forgeries in order to layer on to their knowledge, but their primary focus is authentic work.

Forgers will falsify art by making something similar to what people already expect to see. This is why it is important for authenticators to rely both on their knowledge and also on forensics and science. This is much like how the enemy will take what we expect to be real and slightly twist it to make us believe a lie.

As believers, we should live so focused on learning about and discovering the truth through God’s Word that any lie immediately looks and feels off because it doesn’t look or sound like the real thing.

Does this mean we shouldn’t be aware of how the enemy can lie to us? Not necessarily. We can study forgeries to become better acquainted with the truth, but our greater focus should always be on the authentic. If we hyper-fixate on the enemy, we will lack the necessary truth to refute his lies.

So study the truth! Read the Bible, immerse yourself in it, listen to it, meditate on it, learn through other people and their experience. And also pause a moment to take stock of the ways the enemy has previously been successful in making you believe a lie. Remember, the most powerful lies contain a grain of truth, which is what makes them so convincing. So ask the Holy Spirit for discernment to know what is truth and what is a lie.

Take the Lies to God

What do you do once you’ve identified a lie? The next step is to bring it before God, who is the ultimate truth-bringer. Battling lies on our own can be exhausting and, frankly, confusing. But when we bring a lie to God, He can fully equip us to fight against it with strength, peace, and the most powerful tool of them all: truth.

How Do You Find the Truth?

What is truth and how do we find it? Pilate had this same question (John 18:38), but he failed to realize that truth was standing right before him in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the very personification of truth and whenever we confront a lie, we can come to Him with honesty and ask Him to replace the lie. And the best part is that when we know and experience the truth, it sets us free. Jesus puts this perfectly in John:

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” – John 8:31-32, ESV

We find the truth when we abide in the Word of God, and when we follow Jesus. The more we get to know Jesus, the more we know the truth. It is through Jesus that we experience freedom from lies.

As a classmate used to say all the time, “Lord, speak your truth to me!” This is the key. Jesus is always willing to reveal to us what He actually thinks and how He sees our lives.

For me, this has looked like remembering who God says I am. He has chosen me, He loved me before I could ever do a thing, and He made me to be just enough exactly as I am. If the Creator of the universe chooses me, then why wouldn’t others? I am always chosen, first and foremost by Him.

An Invitation to Embrace the Truth

This may sound easy, but the true challenge happens when it’s time to embrace the truth. After all, we can have truth standing before us (just like Pilate) and still miss it. We need to have a willing heart and an open spirit in order to embrace it. I can ask Jesus to show me the truth, but then I must believe it and walk in it in order to experience true freedom.

How do we embrace the truth? We embrace it by being exposed to it, repeating it, meditating on it, and then living it out like we believe it. The very essence of faith is that we must get out of the boat first in order to experience walking on water. So let’s take the truth God speaks over us and then live like it’s fact, like we believe it, and like we mean it. This takes courage!

How, then, do you see yourself through Heaven’s eyes? Look to Jesus! When you know Him, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

My prayer for you is that God will enable you to see how much He loves you and how every thread of your life is interwoven with care into the great tapestry of His plans for you.

Thanks for reading!
Anna

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Photo by Chermiti Mohamed on Unsplash