The Fleeting Nature of Affliction
In rereading an old journal from years ago, I came across a desperate prayer I had penned when I was very upset with someone about something they had done.
forget the past
The Upward Call
“But ONE THING I DO forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I PRESS ON TOWARD the goal for the prize of THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 ESV In our relationship with God, He is always calling us higher in His purposes, where we discover our …
Setup for a Comeback!
We all know that how we respond to adversity determines our destiny. So press on and let God turn every past setback into a setup for a comeback!
Ready for something new?
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:18-19
There is nothing worse than being in a rut – stuck in a pattern of life that keeps taking you places you don’t want to go. It may be a negative attitude, a destructive habit pattern, a toxic relationship, a dead end job, you name it. Bottom line, you know what a rut is? It is a grave with the ends kicked out. Or at least that is how it can feel.
The promise of a “new thing” quoted above is one of the greatest rutbuster verses in the Bible. Originally it was spoken by God to a sinful and rut-bound Israel promising their deliverance through the coming of the Messiah. But it continues to shine forth as a beacon of hope to all those whose lives are rut bound. And the promised deliverer is still that self-same Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The challenge is that those to whom God seeks to reveal His “new thing” often fail to recognize it. Sadly it is no different today than when God first sent His son Jesus to earth. We read of Jesus that “He came to His own, but His own people did not receive Him.” (John 1:11) Is that perplexing and frustrating or what? There was God, His new thing springing up right under their noses and yet they failed to recognize it. Has that ever happened to you? Maybe, just maybe, it is happening to you right now.