Our two cats like to sit on top of our couch that overlooks our front yard and street. From that position, they can see and discern their environment. It’s a vigilant perspective. If they huddle in their bed all the time, they would be unaware of their surroundings. Like our cats, we need to spiritually sit atop our lives to look out and see what is taking place beyond our emotions and what we are feeling in the turmoil of life.

The life of a follower of Jesus is not to be spent looking only at our immediate life and its concerns and sleeping through life unaware. Gaining a higher spiritual perspective is critical. It can happen in a variety of ways, like reading God’s word, meditation, or fasting. These disciplines provide an awareness of heavenly realities where what is happening in this life can first be interpreted so we can know how to respond to the issues in this life. This is where the truest spiritual warfare takes place.

Gaining that understanding will change how we see this life and respond to its influence. It will also reduce the worry we carry because we are seeing our lives from a higher point of perspective – a heavenly perspective.

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).