I’m sure you’ve all the saying ‘He’s a glass half-empty kind of guy,’ or ‘She’s a glass half-full kind of girl.’ It describes how we tend to see the world, either in a negative light, or a positive light. Some people tend to see the problems in life, while other people see opportunities.

And the truth is that some of us see our spiritual lives in the same fashion. We see how our country is turning its back on Christianity and biblical principles and it gets us down. We see how our young people are leaving our church and it upsets us. We don’t see new people becoming Christians and we feel anxious about the future of our denomination. We can have a tendency to be spiritual glass half-empty kind of people.

And while all of those things may be real, the Bible challenges us to be spiritual half-full kind of people. Not because we’re naturally positive people, but because we believe in an All-powerful, All-knowing, Everywhere present, and intrinsically Loving and Good God. We believe in a God who can do the impossible, who can redeem any situation, and who answers the prayers of his people. We believe in a God who is in control, even of the most difficult circumstances; who calls his people to faithfulness, even in the face of persecution; and who riches blesses his people.

I was reading a blog by Geneva push a few weeks back and wrote down these words: ‘We must dream big! We must create a culture of multiplication thinking. We must learn to see the Kingdom through the lens of abundance and not scarcity. Of opportunity and not problems. We must trust the transforming power of the Gospel and the potential movement-making capacity of every single believer regardless of their worldly situation. (Todd Wilson)’

Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed – it starts small but it will grow (Mt 13:31-32). We believe in a God who takes small things and turns them into great things. And if what was once great has become small, we believe in a God who can breathe new life into dead or dying lives and restore them to life and health (see Ezekiel 37).

Humanly speaking we have every reason for concern, but as Christians we speak of the power and love of God, and we have every reason to look to the future with excitement, to believe that God can do something new and amazing in our lives, in the life of our church, and in our denomination. The challenge is to take our eyes off ourselves and our circumstances and fix them on our heavenly Father. Let’s pray that God would do a miracle, let’s dream big, let’s create a culture of growth, let’s see the kingdom through the lens of abundance, let’s see opportunities, and let’s trust in the transforming people of the gospel.