Remember Who & Whose You Are: How to Keep Things in Perspective

I was sitting here thinking that God has a sense of humor.

There’s no other explanation I could come up with for what was going through my mind. A couple of years ago he spoke to me to elevate, educate and motivate his people.  Initially I had no idea what he meant or how to do that. Later it occurred to me that I had been sort of doing this all along, in my small way. I knew that it was important to me to let people know there’s always a way out of situations and circumstances.  I truly believe that. Therefore, I began sharing my heart about this subject matter during my 360 Mountain Moving Motivation calls.

And then the enemy strikes back.

Within the last couple of weeks, my husband and I have been under so much pressure.  We were threatened with a civil suit and to add insult to injury, I later received an unpleasant report from my doctor. How does God expect me to elevate, educate and motivate others when I need someone to encourage me?

I do understand that he loves me. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. Yet, he must have an eccentric sense of humor to expect me to do what he said. Really God? Isn’t this a bit much?  However, there’s something on the inside of me that vehemently hates the enemy’s work against God’s people. So what better way to shame the devil than stepping out in faith with what God said to do even in the midst of my pressure, pain and problem?

I will share with you what I shared with the ladies on the call.

You may not be where you’d like to be, but you are far from where you were. Life is always progressive whether or not you see yourself progressing.  I believe you can move mountains out of your way by simply putting things into perspective.

Your perspective is how you see things or your take on situations that force themselves into your life.  Here’s what I want you to understand: Life is choice driven. I will use myself as an example and illustrate what I mean.

I remember a time when I felt as if I was a target being hit from all angles. During this time my interior design business wasn’t at all fruitful; clients owed me money and wouldn’t pay; I didn’t have health insurance; my car had been totaled in an accident; I didn’t live near any public transportation or at least any that I could access nearby by walking to; and I was being threatened with an eviction from my apartment.  Wouldn’t you say that was a very hard place in my life?

But I had choices. Either I could have a pity party, move in with a relative, or do nothing while hoping for the best. But I remember thinking that I had to put things into perspective. Being a responsible individual, the pursuit of other avenues to correct my problems was clearly the option to take. So I saw things from a better angle.

Perspective is similar to the design principle known as “proportion.”

Proportion deals with the ratio of elements to each other within a room. It further suggests a weighty comparison among different elements. Therefore, I decided to look at the proportion of what I had and who I was, to the proportion of what was coming against me.  We know the proportion of what was coming at me was very sizable and threatening.  So what was the proportion of what I had and who I was to this threat?

Because God has gifted me to creatively relate life to interior design, I came up with this scenario.  Say you have installed fresh new carpeting in your home. On top of that carpet is your heavy furniture. You walk on that carpeting. You may even spill some type of liquid on that carpeting that leaves a stain. Your children may run, jump and roll on that carpet. The carpet is further pressured by the roller and suction of your vacuum.  Now tell me this. After being abused and stained, does the carpet roll itself up and say, “I don’t want to be a carpet anymore. I’m treated too harshly. I’d rather be drapery!”

No, the carpet knows its place because it is made of certain fabrications to stand up to pressure.  The carpet knows its proficiency.  The manufacturer designed it with distinct materials for performance and endurance.

Much the same way is life. Adversity will pressure you at times, but you have to know who you are. You have to understand what you are made of, your proficiencies. You must know and understand who you are.  Again, let’s put this into perspective. What proportion do life’s challenges have in your life compared to the proportion of the distinct power that you have within you? 

Who are you? You are the Daughter of the KING. You have his DNA. You are covered by the blood of Jesus.  That’s who you are.  Never take this lightly.

What are you made of? What do you have within?  You are made of COURAGE. You have courage inside of you. God has equipped you with courage to stand up to any challenge in life. But you must know that you can. He promises you in Psalm 91:9-13: “If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home.  For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.  They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.  You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!”

And then he took it further. Courage is a commandment! As he talked to Joshua, he is today talking to you. He commanded you in Joshua 1:9 that you be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. WHY? For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. This sounds like a great deal of proportion in your favor. So let’s see what else is inside of you.

You have God’s COMMITMENT in Philippians 4:19 to provide you with whatever you need according to His riches in glory. That’s his commitment to you. it’s how you are fashioned and manufactured and it’s inside of you.  You have to know this. I don’t believe that life’s circumstances are proportional to that.

God said that he, himself will provide for you. This means you don’t have to provide for yourself!

The third thing that you are made of is his CHARACTER. Did you know that you have God’s character? He says to you in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that you have the mind of Christ. With this knowledge you can be poised, self-confident and assured that no matter what challenges that life throws at you…

…Like that carpet covering the floor, you too have a covering.  You have his covering. Inside of you is HIS COURAGE, COMMITMENT and CHARACTER.

When you put that into perspective, you far exceed the proportion of any challenge of life. When I was faced with that very difficult time in my life, I had to literally kick those mountains out of my life. I stood up in courage, I held on to God’s commitment to me and I rose up in his character by saying what he said about me and not what I saw coming at me. I spoke what I wanted and not what I saw. Do you want those mountains to move out of your way? 

Stand in your courage, hold on to God’s commitment and rise up in his character and call in what you want and tell the mountain to get out of your way. Because greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world!

I want to hear from you. You may contact me at dmurphy@eewmagazine.com.

Dr. Deana is a Marketplace Minister and founder and CEO of LivingDesigns360, a company that mentors the kingdom-minded woman in creative ways to renovate and design her interior life so she can create major breakthroughs, achieve personal accountability, emotional clarity and inner direction. Also a master lifedesign strategist, speaker, educator, blogger and award winning author, Dr. Deana’s creative approach embraces techniques from interior design. She takes her 13 years’ experience as a certified interior designer and successfully applies it to the art of Interior Lifedesign, blending in a focus on personal development and life improvement strategies from head to toe. Clients work with Dr. Deana through private strategy sessions, workshops, group mentoring programs, keynotes and retreats. Her mission: to elevate, educate and motivate the Kingdom woman so she can master her confidence, soar in her freedom and design her best life.

Visit Dr. Deana at deanamurphyglobal.com

Email Deana:
dmurphy@eewmagazine.com

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