Going into the new year we have a tradition called the making of New Year resolutions. We promise ourselves to do or don’t, but for most of us we’ve broken it or them before we’ve really gotten started or given them a chance; why? The simple answer is because change is hard, it’s part of something new, a future happening and the future can remove us from what we’ve known, excepted, or experienced by taking us away from our comfort zone installing us into unknown and uncharted territory even though we know the expected results are better.
Let’s be honest–we usually don’t plan enough or at all mainly going with the flow of trends that’s been prepared for us and making decisions based on those givens, but to actually blueprint our destiny, few do. The closest we get to planning our future most likely is job related and associated with the company you’re employed, but for the most part on a personal level, it’s wishful thinking.
Planning for the future is work, hard work and as result, an involuntary but spontaneous minus to this aim and we’ll spend time mulling over the past; too much time. Hey! it’s part of us. Our main thoughts are just re-enactments of time gone by and there’s not one thing we can do about it and it’ll always seem as if it happened yesterday, so because it’s past reality we’ll murmur about those happenings spending too much time there with some of us wishing–if we could just get that time back, and sadly many of us try. This pattern stunts our future, and the future is all we have to look forward to. The past is done which brings me to my topic.
If you think real hard you’ll understand there’s no such thing as the present. Every move you make and every thought you have is a futuristic action once made becomes the past; there’s no present. The only reason we assume a present is because of time with its 24-hour day and giving reason to that assumption because everything incorporated in that time frame is considered the present. Remove time and there’s no present–only past and future.
There has to be no recollection of a past or a future to be in a present state because a present state is personal and is only achieved at death. In death time stops; past and future are no more for that diseased individual, their forever state of present which is defined by time–is, and an eternity begins for them in that state, but for the born again/saved it’s a little different because the moment you’ve receive Christ, eternity began for you; we’ll never be without life, (2nd Corinthians 5:8), (Hebrews 2:9) and because of this, putting more time in remembering the good old days rather than planning for better days is a slap in God’s face since for the born again/saved tomorrows never end, so hanging out in the past is a waist of why God created you, (Genesis 1:28). In this verse it says be fruitful and multiply. God made no plans for the same o, same o, and He has none now. He reminds us in (Proverbs 29:18), Where there’s no vision, the people perish. Dah! Spending too much time in the past will take the life out of you because there’s nothing happing there. All the happenings are in next, not in reviews. Yesterday is a reason for advancement, today is that step, or you’re dead already. Trying to dwell in the past is a forthcoming decision that’s all fantasy do to it’s gone.
The one who created the universe has huge plans for you that if He gave them to you all at once you’ll never do them because you’d be overwhelmed; you’d treat them like you do New Year resolutions, here’s another thing, God will not spoon-feed you to your Destiny but He will take you there if you step out in faith toward it not wavering, but it can’t contradict His Word. We can’t please God when we make it impossible for Him to do His thing because of our lack of faith and disbelief, (Hebrews 11:6). We disbelieve and lack faith when we feel we can’t do anything better that’ll change our current situation, locked in a present mindset by excepting what’s already happened trying to live a kind of existence which excepts an early death in exchange for better understanding in order to defeat that lie, and I don’t care if you disagree, the alike understanding is living as God said, giving Him the lead by rejecting the way YOU wish it was or could be, (the past/present) for the way God says it is and should be, (the future).
They’ll be left and right turns along the way but it’ll be no reason to quit regardless of the situation or circumstances; these issues will only be categorized as experiences. The twist and turns in your path is no reason to doubt or bail out because immediate gratification is not met. God says, be anxious about nothing, keep believing and be thankful (Philippians 4:6). Too consider those obstacles can throw you back into reflecting on the past flirting with the possibility of making decisions about them to satisfy your lack of faith and stimulate the dependents of your own understanding that’ll circle around how easy it was yesterday (Exodus 16:3).
When you keep doing the same thing looking for different results it’s called insanity. Considering what has already happened as your destiny is sad and not realistic. God doesn’t like or tolerate this type of attitude because it excludes Him, limits Him, and confuses you; leaving you alone and hopeless.
Dwelling in the past doesn’t please God. Not having a vision for the new year or at any time for that matter is sinful, and quitting or breaking them is worse. So if this is you, me included, consider yourself the living dead trying to live in the present and there’s no such thing. Plan, do, create; give God a chance and quit quitting there’s no future in it.
Gaidi
Word of note: We hold on to the past so tight that it’s easy to let go of any kind of unfamiliar or challenging disparities that’ll include change for the better, change for fulfillment, change for growth, prosperity and quality of life because it’s fearful and uncharted territory requiring effort not many want to give so we quit because immediate gratification is not met; too hard, but show us some quick, low information, nonproductive but simple change and just like that, hurry up and quickly fill me in.
We’re programed by what stimulate our interest to want the most reward for the least effort, so we daydream combining them with the past trying to make yesterday better again with exceptions, and making decisions based on the experiences. God grieves at this wasted lifestyle and He has no concern for it. His only concern is about our future with the fullness of life and all its abundance He’s prepared for us by calling whatever is holding us back a thief. Simmering in that nothing that’s already happened called your past is robbery, will distroy you, can kill you, and is not of God, (John 10:10).
It requires strength to let go of the past in order to change, but yesterday’s strength can’t get you through today because yesterday’s strength was based on yesterday’s events unless yesterday’s events were solid winners defined by Scripture. The strength built on realizations of the past handcuffs your future and is shaped by doubt. The strength needed to move toward your destiny requires trust. Trust is not needed for anything that happened yesterday. You formulate trust to complete, you establish doubt to close the door on vision.
Strength comes from exercise and repetition but the exercise of what, doubt/the past, or trust/the vision? Trust in the vision should be the stronger not the weaker, if not, you’re living your life backwards and out of touch with God, and the habits surrounding those choices with people in that circle influence your destiny and quality of life. I could say more but this is a blog post, not a sermon. Next time, Gaidi