Do you remember riding a Ferris wheel for the first time? Perched on the bench seat—scared but excited—your stomach likely dropped as the machine whisked you up into the sky. Suspended in air, with little between you and the hard earth below, you might have giggled nervously or distracted yourself by teasing the kid sitting beside you. The most amazing thing was how different everything looked from up there. You took it all in, stunned by how small the adults looked down below and how much more you could see from that vantage point.

Writers of Scripture were often given “God’s eye” views from above. Many struggled to put their revelations into words. In chapter 40, Isaiah tries to encourage God’s people by reminding them of who He is and how His presence with them makes all the difference.  

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? [God] sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? … Why do you say, Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God’? … The Lord is the everlasting God. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (vv. 21-23, 26-31 NIV)  

Israel certainly needed Isaiah’s encouragement. After going through persecution and exile, they were convinced the Lord had abandoned them. They felt outnumbered by the pagan nations around them and powerless to break free from their control. Their difficulties had caused them to take their eyes off God; they’d forgotten all the promises He’d given them.  

Can you relate? While our troubles don’t compare with theirs, the church of the living God today is experiencing similar feelings of helplessness and victimization. We lash out in anger and frustration at our many enemies—godless and corrupt governments, a liberal press seemingly oblivious to any view different from their own, social media sites and public-school systems that seem intent on corrupting our children and making us conform to their demands. We feel outnumbered, misunderstood, and under attack.

Our focus is mostly on the ground at our feet, where turf is fought for and wars are waged in human strength. But the Lord wants us to remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Our enemies are spiritual, not flesh and blood. They don’t belong to a particular political party. We can’t hurt them by name calling or shaming them on social media. They aren’t touched by rude or clever comments on our T-shirts or car bumpers. We won’t win against them by voting in a stronger candidate, boycotting products, signing petitions, or holding up signs in the streets.

The Bible says that we have powerful spiritual resources and weaponry that “have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4), but we often try to wage our warfare in the flesh. Instead of using the mighty resources of God—prayer, faith, truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God)—we engage our enemies with worldly strategies and weapons. No wonder we see little change! All we accomplish is to confirm to the world that we are just like them. Even though the apostle Paul was a powerful figure in the early church and fearlessly took on the ruling authorities, he said he came in “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:1).    

To be effective in our battle against evil, we must let the Holy Spirit remind us of who God is and who we are in Him. So much of what we get hyped up over is what Paul called “beggarly elements” in Galatians 4:9 (NKJV). He could see that the believers there were getting distracted by things that were (in comparison to the Gospel) “scant, petty, or paltry” (the dictionary’s description of the word beggarly). We’re in danger of doing that today as well. Once the battleground was the banning of prayer from schools. Today it is masks or vaccines. Tomorrow there will be another new challenge. Yes, the church must fight against evil but are these the hills we should be willing to die on? Can you imagine the early apostles engaging in debates about the church’s rights when their very lives were at stake?

It’s even more important to consider in what spirit we fight. In Luke 9:55 Jesus tells the disciples to think about whose spirit they were displaying when they suggested raining fire down from heaven to destroy their rude Samaritan neighbors. In what spirit do we approach our enemies today? Jesus was clear that if we want to reflect Him, we must pray for and bless our flesh and blood “enemies.” He modeled this on the cross. Will we follow Him?

Probably the worst part of this current debate is how it has divided up Christians into different camps of opinion. This happened back in Corinth, too, when people became adamant about which Christian leader was the best one to follow. Paul sought to redirect their thinking by offering this God’s-eye view of the church’s role in the world. “I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God” (1 Corinthians 3: 21–22 MSG).

According to Paul’s vantage point, those who belong to Christ could not be in a more enviable place or have more real power. We are far from being victims in an ungodly world. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We are God’s representatives, His able ministers, and His dear children. Let’s rest and rejoice in that glorious reality.

We can’t live from the top of a Ferris wheel, of course. We must serve the Lord down on the ground where we will encounter difficulties, challenges, and enemies of all kinds. But the God’s-eye view helps us keep our perspective straight so we can use His weapons wisely. It helps us remember who He is and how secure our position in Him is, both now and for eternity.   

Paul writes from his prison cell: “On Him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:10–11, 21–22).