Hello, Future!

My morning got off to a bad start. Well…let me clarify. After my prayer time, I went back to bed for a little while and when I got up again, it was like waking up to a bad dream. One child was moving in ultra-slow motion, the other one was in speed mode and not listening, husband was in his own world and I slowly got more and more irritated. There wasn’t one thing in particular that got me, but a combination of things that set me off in the wrong direction. I got snappy and not particularly pleasant. By the time we were all leaving, one child was crying and the other was pouting and I was rolling my eyes. When I finally got in the car and on my way, it didn’t take long for the Holy Spirit to start working. I began to repent and pray. I called my husband and apologized and the girls chatted and we were back on track with our day. Why did I have to tell all that, you ask? Simple answer: It’s time to move forward.

After dropping Sanai off, I put in a devotional cd to just reset and the man said one line that made my spirit jump. “Don’t let past failures and events govern your life.” I knew it was God speaking. It felt like He was giving me permission to move on from this morning. I had repented and gotten things straight in the family so I couldn’t stay there for the rest of my day. In the bigger picture, so many of us are stuck in our pasts. We are struggling to move forward from what happened last month, last year, in childhood. I believe God is telling us to seek freedom from those old hurts, pains, and traumas. It’s all in line with this season of thanksgiving that we are in. In order to be grateful, we have to take our focus off of the struggle. God doesn’t want us to live in rewind, He wants us to press play on our lives and watch Him work.

I hear you saying.  How do I do that? I’ve been struggling with this disappointment, this failure, this hurt for so long. It’s hard for me to move on. Believe me, I understand, there are some things that we have experienced that feel impossible to escape from. But the question is, isn’t your future worth the attempt? There is not a timeline to moving forward but I believe there is one to getting started. Once you agree to give those burdens over to the Lord, your future starts. Think about Paul, who had quite a past to contend with and many past failures but he tells us to keep pressing forward. “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Phil. 3:12-14 NLT)

My prayer is for peace and liberty to reign in your life. It’s so hard to walk in joy when you are carrying the weight of the past on your shoulders and in your heart. My challenge to you today is to reach out for freedom and start your journey forward. No longer can we allow the hurt to be your comforter. We serve notice on the enemy today that moving forward is our new plan of attack. “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17 NKJV) This verse is nestled in a chapter that talks about the glory and power of the new covenant. We are no longer like the people of Israel that were separated from the glory of God by the veil over Moses’ face. The veil was taken away by Christ. “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.” (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT) Allow the glory of God and His Holy Spirit wash over you, take away that old stuff, and propel you forward.

So…as we close, let’s say goodbye to some things as we move forward. Goodbye, unforgiveness! No longer will you keep me focused on what my _____ did to me. Goodbye, anger! No longer will I allow you to color my life and how I interact with people on a daily basis. Goodbye, bitterness! You don’t have permission to harden my heart and hinder my blessings anymore. Goodbye, disappointment! I am through letting you lower my expectations because of what happened yesterday.  “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is. 43: 18-19 NKJV)

Today we close the door on those things that hinder and clear some space for the new things that come from a fresh start. This is not an easy thing but it is something we must do consciously so that we can walk in all that God has for us! Hello, future! You sure are looking brighter…

God bless…AMEN