Have you considered we serve the God of the new? Every week starts with a fresh Sunday. Every month is marked by a new moon. New spring growth follows a seasonal cycle of summer, autumn, and winter. At the end of each year, a new year begins. When we receive Christ we are made into a new creation. One day in the future we’ll even bear witness to a new heaven and a new earth.
Paul advises us, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,” (Phi 3:13).
We must do the same.
The question isn’t what has God done (though for that we certainly give Him recognition and humble thanks) – the question must be: What is God doing in your life right now? Where is He leading you?
Remember, we serve the Great I AM, not the Great I WAS.
As Paul admonishes, let go of the past. Notice he doesn’t qualify the prior in any way other than it has become history. At the time he wrote this, Paul had experienced both terrific victories and horrific failures. So have we. And like Paul, we are not sustained by those wins, nor are we hobbled by our defeats. God neither glorifies nor condemns your past; instead He sanctifies your future.
So everything you were, leave behind. Everything you are, bring with you. All that God has destined you will become, embrace with gladness. Behold, as God does a new thing.
Lord, let our lives be clay in Your hands as You make us new each day. Shape us for that divine destiny to which you have called us. Help us live pleasingly and obediently to Your perfect will as You make us more and more like You. Amen.
–RG