Change the way you look at situations
After a traumatic situation let’s give an example of a bomb attack or accident. When talking to the survivors you will notice that everyone does not respond in the same way. You may imagine in an interview after the blast, others will be just happy to be alive while others may be in shock. At times how you respond after a tragic event determines how fast one heals and by just being optimistic one heals fast. A times people don’t heal fast from negative situations because of how they look at the situations.
In 1 Kings 17, God instructed Elijah the prophet to go to a widow's house. He asked her for something to drink and a small cake to eat. Now because there was a famine in the land, the widow woman told Elijah that she could not honor his second request. She told him, she only had enough oil and flour to make her son and herself a small cake before they die. Now, that is a very wrong take on her situation. She basically let the prophet know that all she had was enough for her family's last meal and she could not help him. In an Interview with Dr Shirley Inniss I discovered that the widow was not optimistic and to some extent she had given up on life. The drought had lasted for years and the widow could have tried all that she can and that last meal was in a way her suicide letter or note to say there is nothing more I can do. We all celebrate how she finally trusted God’s servant and went to prepare a meal for him but we close our eyes to the fact that she had given up on life and had lost strength to fight.
Her mind seemed set. She was not optimistic about her situation at all. The great news for her is that she changed her mind at the last minute and that one decision changed everything. She made a cake for the prophet, then for her son and herself and the ingredients just kept replenishing. Her obedience and her ability to change her mind and how she saw the outcome of her situation actually saved the life of her family. Many people gave up just when they were almost at the finishing line.
The widow’s obedience allowed God to deliver her from death. At times you are one decision away from your breakthrough, but if your perception does not change, you will remain in that situation. Its time to change the way you see or the way you look at situations. Being optimistic goes beyond just having a positive outlook at life and situations. The widow had no more hope and because of this she was blinded to any future that had her and her son surviving a drought. Many people would not have had her faith to feed the prophet, her story outlines a lot of people’s stories who are a decision away from breakthrough but are blinded by their current situations. The man by the pool of Bethesda complained about how he had no one to help him when Jesus the healer was before him. Gideon hid from an enemy he had strength to overcome. At times we justify our situations that we at times seem as if we are paralyzed. It is time to rise above that negative outlook and allow God to show you how to navigate out of that negative situation but the first step is being optimistic.
God bless you
