I Remember the Future

I just listened to a podcast (twice now, actually) by Daniel Brown entitled "Press on to the Future." (Btw, if you haven't already done so, subscribe to the iTunes podcast for Commended to the Word Ministries. You should be able to find it easily by typing that title into the search window.) Listening to this has both reminded me of something I know and added to it new understanding that I lacked before.

God always points us to the future. Even when He asks us to look back, it's for the sake of helping us move forward.

Daniel makes a riveting statement in this teaching. Like a pebble dropped into a still pond creates a series of ripples that move across its surface, this "nugget" has caused a ripple effect in my heart and mind as I consider its implications in my life. Here's the statement (paraphrased): "Condemnation always points us to the past in a way that offers no hope for the future. Grace always points to the future in a way that offers hope of being freed from the past."

As I think about this statement I'm asking the Lord and myself, "Where am I stuck on things of the past?" Mistakes, bad choices, and things that have happened to me have a great power over me--if I let them. Good times, too, and things that used to be--these can also keep me shackled to the past. Kinda hard to move forward when you're chained to something that no longer moves. I'm not just talking about things long ago. I'm thinking of things that happened just last week, or even just a couple days ago.

God isn't primarily interested in how well I manage to conduct my life. It's by grace through faith that I have been saved (not by anything I have managed to do on my own strength), and thereby made "right" in His eyes. Problem is, that never satisfies the pride and self-imposed (and unattainable) requirements that seem so religious to me, even though they fit nowhere in God's ways or plans for my life. How sobering is this growing understanding that God is showing me: Apart from the way I feel "good" or "bad", there's really no difference between feeling superior because of what I have been able to accomplish and feeling like a loser because of what I have messed up. Both are self-focused and self-absorbed perspectives that leave no room for God or His grace. Whether I'm exalting myself or pitying myself, God is out of the picture. And when He's out of the picture, so is the future that He promises me. (One of the verses Daniel explains is Jermiah 29:11, which speaks of the future God has for us--a future that can only be attained if we hold fast to Him and let go of our efforts to be good according to our own religious standards.)

One thing I've learned over the dozen years that I've walked with the Lord: Feeling bad about my mistakes is death; but so is my inclination to linger on "the good old days." I'm a broken man who falls flat on his face with great frequency and skill! BUT... God's grace is always sufficient to raise me up to my feet once again. Now that's something to boast in. My prayer today: "God, help me to let go of my Josh-accomplishments and failures." Like Paul, I want to equate them to rubbish in comparison to the surpassing awesomeness that characterizes God's super-enabling GRACE in my walk with Him. There's NEVER a shortage of that grace--except when I'm disallowing its rightful place in my life. He faithfully and freely offers it to me; I want to take hold of it with the same faithfulness.