Watch Where You’re Going
JOHN 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
If you want a bag of cement to become concrete, you must mix it with water. Likewise, you must mix God’s Word with faith in order for it to become a concrete experience in your life. The walk from Egypt to Canaan should have taken the people of Israel about 35 days, but it took them 40 years because they kept looking back. Maybe that sounds familiar to you. Maybe you feel that you should have been further in your life by now, further in your career, your relationships, your family, your finances, or your emotional and spiritual well-being, but instead you keep looking back. You keep saying “what if” and “why” and “if only.” You fear that you have blown it. You have missed your opportunity. You have failed. Or you fear that someone else has messed you up too much, ruined your future, or stolen your hope. Yesterday is real—there is no denying that. But you don’t have to keep looking back like the Israelites did: “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks” (Numbers 11:5). Instead, you can look at the milk and honey of your destiny.
God promised the Israelites a bountiful tomorrow, just as He promises you a wonderful destiny. As His child, you have a future filled with hope. Never underestimate God. He can turn a mess into a miracle. That’s what He did in the lives of Moses, Rahab, Sarah, Peter, Jacob, and so many others in Scripture. Let their lives serve as testimonies to what God can and will do through you… if you will put your hope and trust in Him. The next time you feel like complaining, praise Him instead. Don’t praise Him for the mess or for the pain; praise Him that He is bigger than the mess and the pain and that He can sanctify all of it, setting you on the path of purpose.
Dear God, thank You for this reminder to look forward and not backward. I want to move ahead and fully live on purpose, so I choose to let go of the past and embrace all You have in store for me now.
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