When you are faced with things from your past, you have an opportunity to run or to face them head on and know with confidence that you are changed, different, and not the same as you once were. Even when you may be drowning in your doubt there is a new horizon and all you have to do is lift up your eyes and see the sun is rising. What if the picture we have is bigger than we see it? Because God never has you somewhere he doesn’t want you, he always has you right where he want you to be. We need to listen with your hearts, for he is telling us with every beat that we are changed. Now the question is will you dare to believe that it is so?
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”–Isaiah 43:18-19
Fear is a constant in our lives, fear of our past, fear of our present and fear of our future. Yet, we do not need to fear because while our battle may be during the day our victory is at night. So often in the old testament the Lord tells the Israelites to stand and, HE will fight. During the day we try to rely on our own strength, but at night we are sleeping and trusting that the Lord is protecting us through the night. Can we not do that during the day too?
“Her lamp does not go out at night”–Proverbs 31:18b
We need to just stand and the Lord will fight for us, take courage and do not forget that it is the strength of the Lord. As “David said to Solomon his son, be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and not be dismayed, for the LORD God is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until the work for the building of the house (temple) of the LORD is finished” (2 Chronicles 28:20). WE are the HOUSE OF THE LORD, we are HIS TEMPLE and the Lord is never finished with us! Stand strong, take courage and never doubt that the Lord is finished with you, never doubt you haven’t overcome your past, and never doubt that you aren’t changed!
“Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”–Ephesians 6:10-12
This is what I hear Papa saying to us: “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. It is perfectly safe for you to go on this way even though it looks so wrong, and now I give you another promise: Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, ‘This is the way walk in it,’ when you turn to the right hand or the left. Will you suffer yourself to lose or to be deprived of all that you have gained on this journey? WIll you go down this path of forgiveness, just because it is the way that I have chosen for you? Will you still trust and still love me? Don’t you know by now that I never think of you as you are now but as you will be when I have brought you to the Kingdom of Love and washed you from all the stains and defilements of the journey? If I come along behind you and notice that you are finding the way especially difficult, and are suffering from slips and falls, it only makes me think of what you will be like when you are with me, leaping and skipping in my Kingdom. Keep pressing forward, for remember that nothing can do you any real harm while you are following the path of my will.”
