Years ago, a movie came out starring Robin Williams called “Dead Poets Society.” It was about a teacher of a group of young men in an English class, who encouraged them to take a different perspective on life. He  wanted to encourage them to look at life and learning differently. And I thought, “What does God say about that?”

In 1 Samuel, God is searching to find another king to replace Saul. So he calls the prophet Samuel to go to the family of Jesse to look at Jesse's sons, to see if he can find a king. So Jesse parades his boys in there and Samuel looks, he sees the oldest son, Eliab. Samuel says, “Oh, he's the one, he's handsome and strong, and he looks like he can handle it.” And God says, “No, he's not My man.” Because you know what, God looks at things differently than we do. God doesn’t look at things as man does. 

We may look at the outer appearance, but God says, “I look at the heart.” 

Jesse made seven of his sons pass by Samuel, but God did not choose any of them. Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons. He said, “Well, I've got my youngest son, David. He's out tending the sheep.” And Samuel told Jesse to send for him and when he came in, God said, “He's the one.” David is the one we hear about later that God called a man after God's own heart. So, I wonder... how can we take that example into our hearts? Well, first of all, God sees us differently than we see ourselves. We look at the outer man. Oftentimes we look at our own outer man as we look at others, and that's not really a true picture. God wants us to look at His heart and to see our new heart.

In Ezekiel, we read, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 (NASB). At the time of our salvation, we each get a new spirit and a new heart. God takes away our hearts of stone, those hard, not receiving, cold hearts and gives each one of us a new heart with a new spirit. And it's a heart of flesh. It's pliable and it can receive. 

So, as Believers, we each have a new heart and a new spirit. 

That means we can look at others, and ourselves, with our new hearts and spirits, and not look at others as men see us. So, as we go through life and when we look at other people, we think, hmm, how am I seeing them? Well, Paul comes along in 2 Corinthians and says, “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16 (NASB).

So Paul is saying, “I'm not looking through my flesh eyes, my preconceived ideas, my old perspective to see you. And I'm not looking at you as your outer man. I'm looking at your heart.” And I think that's such an encouragement for us to know that when we're in relationships, we can look at each other with our own new heart, the heart of God, and we can see into others, into their new hearts and their new spirits. 

Wouldn't life be grand if we were all looking at each other through the eyes and heart of God? 

I challenge you today when you see something that's really ruffling your feathers, just wait a minute and ask, “How am I looking at this? What's my perspective?” And ask God to give you His perspective.