First, I would like to assure you that I have been guilty of looking backwards more than I would like to admit. Still, the subject needs to be looked at from a Christian perspective based on Scripture and experience. Secondly, I would like to assure you that I have never been able to undo anything in the past. While I can make amends for the wrongs I have committed and ask forgiveness from God for sin, I am unable to change, erase or make them go away. Third, I am a realist who believes in the impossible. It's called faith. Faith is that part of our spiritual life that gives us hope for the unseen forward looking Christian. Our focus on forward looking can come from the past or from the promises of God. The past has been addressed so all we have left is God. That's not bad for a choice given to the Christian. Forth, we often look at doing the same thing to effect different results. That's called insanity. Why? Because we cannot change the past. The Bible tells us that each day is made new for the believer. It doesn't say each day is a do-over. That only happens on TV and in the world.
Why do we engage the past and not the future? The Christian is often caught in between the draw of the world and the leading of God. Thinking we can, we will, we shall are future related thinking. Thinking that we must pay for the past, deal with regrets and engage in continual guilt are all part of past thinking. Looking backwards isn't wise. Remember Lot's wife? Remember the Israelites in the desert wanting to go back to Egypt? Remember the plotting of Jesus' death in order to silence his message? None of those changed the past. They changed the future. We need to remember to forget. What I'm saying is we need to keep a historical knowledge and maintain a Christian forward thinking. When God said he threw our sins in the sea of forgetfulness, he meant it. When God told us to "go", he meant it. When God said that he would return for those who love him, he meant it. When he said he was going to prepare a place for us, he meant it. Not once did God say we need to fix the past before we move on. Not once. Why was that? Because God does and wants us to do forward thinking. Looking forward to that which is to come in the hope we have by faith in that which has not yet been accomplished. When we are busy with backwards looking we are unable to live with our sights on forward looking.
I wrote a book some years ago the title of which is "While I Was Yet Sinning." The message of the book was how we are NOT disqualified for the work of the Kingdom by the lives we live. You and I are unable to go through a single day without sin. That's just the way it is. A lot of Christians are intent on disqualifying other Christians because of their sin past and present. Yet, we are called to bring the Gospel to the world we are living in. How can we do that when our own brothers and sisters are seeing us as damaged goods. THEY are backward lookers. Here's a clue...look forward anyway. We have God to answer to and not our fellow Christians. Stand up and do what God wants you and I to do. Don't look back as there is nothing there except the wiles of the devil. Satan has lost the battle and he knows us. The more people he can enslave to the backwards thinking, the better chance he has of keeping the Gospel from preached by those who are called just for that. You may have been caught in the past. It's not too late to discipline yourself to be a forward looking Christian who sees what isn't as what it will be. That's called faith and you always have the choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment