Do You Have EP?

Linda Dillow's book "Calm My Anxious Heart" goes hand in hand with Pastor Todd's message last Sunday, do you have EP Eternal Perspective? As Linda says in her book "It's Gods way of seeing. When we have God's perspective, we view our lives and evaluate what is important from his viewpoint." "True contentment is separate from our circumstances."

2 Corinthians 4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Today I encourage each of us to follow Ella's prescription for contentment:

* Never allow yourself to complain about anything--not even the weather

* Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else

* Never compare your lot with another's

* Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise

* Never dwell on tomorrow - remember that (tomorrow) is God's, not ours.

Do you find Ella's list difficult to do? Challenging isn't it? Often times I find Ella popping in my mind as I begin to complain about my circumstances, especially now that we're on lock down. How quickly we can loose our contentment when our perspective becomes focused on our current situation rather than our EP.

Linda tells us Ella worked for a missionary with the pygmies in Africa for fifty-two years. Despite the fact that she had no modern day conveniences, she lived a life of contentment in the scorching heat & humidity. Her secret was having her eyes fixed on eternity. "One day at a time she could make the right choices and grow to posses the holy habit of contentment. Ella's focus was eternal, and her focus led to an internal contentment."

Philippians 3:12-14

Do you own a pair of binoculars? If you are like us you have several pairs right?! Did you know I read around 80% of the people do not know how to focus them? Can this really be true? I was really surprised by that percentage. What is the real value of having a pair of binoculars? It's the ability to view objects from a great distance right? But this only happens when the binoculars optical systems have been focused correctly.

Friends, do you need to adjust your focus? Let's start each day with an EP focus, rather than focusing on our current circumstances. Throughout the day we may need to adjust our focus, just like our binoculars when objects move closer or farther away from us. Ella formed a habit of contentment by the choices she made every single day, what a great example to us all.

1 Timothy 6:6-8

But Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Written by: Jill Theriault

Crossroads Coaching - @crossroadscoachingongodstime