Looking Backwards?
Feel stuck in your past? I totally understand that feeling! We have to intentionally look away from the things that draw us to the past and look to God. What do we know about the past? What has God told us? He forgives us (1 John 1:9). His mercy is new every day. (Lamentations 3:22-23) He doesn’t remember our past and things we did or didn’t do in our past, as He throws our sins as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:10-13) He does new things in our today and we miss them when we are stuck in our past. (Isaiah 43: 18-19) Sometimes we have to do something intentionally practical. What I did once when I could not get over a situation that haunted me was, I went down to the beach, I drew a line in the sand. I wrote in the sand, my past, and I wrote in the sand, my future and I drew a line in the middle of the two and I stepped over the line from my past to my today. (1 Peter 1:18-21) I asked God to give me the determination to live in today, where He is, He is in today. Your past is done and over with, you can’t change it. But in God, with His strength, wisdom and love, today is a new day and change is attainable. God is writing your life story, give Him the pen and step into today, free of yesterday and ready to be a part of the story line God is writing right now.
Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. 1 Peter 1:18-21
1 John 1:9 But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. “Confession of sin is the way to find restoration and unbroken fellowship with God. It cleanses the conscience and removes every obstacle from communion with Christ. Confession does not gain God’s acceptance, for that was won for us forever by the sacrifice of Christ. It is on the basis of being his dearly loved children that we restore intimacy with God through our tenderhearted confession before him. God will always be faithful to restore our first-love passion for him. There is no need to confess the same sins over and over, for that is ignoring the blood of Jesus that cleanses us. All of our sins were paid for on the cross and we can do nothing to remove them, but confession acknowledges God’s faithfulness to restore our intimacy with him. Our Father and our forgiving Redeemer fill the heavens with grace toward every believer, even when we sin.)” The Passion Translation Commentary 1 John 1:9
Bad Dream?
Are you stuck in a bad life pattern? Have you asked and asked for God to change things up, but you are still there, stuck in this bad dream? God is not ignoring you, He has heard your prayer. I have been there and learned this. Patient endurance is a real thing that God wants to teach us. Many times, He teaches it through waiting on answered prayer. This is why I don’t underestimate God, because my circumstances may be purposefully not changing. God always has a plan for our good and His glory. God heard when you asked and He is working in the unseen for your good even if life feels terribly hard. There were many times as I waited on God I felt my situation was more than what I could handle. He was stretching me. There are times you may wonder if you can endure, especially since you have seen no change and God has not intervened yet. God knows us, He knows our limits and He knows just how far He can push us. He never leaves us through it all. He remains, faithful, sure and true, with us!
Psalm 103: 10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. 11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. 12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. 13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. 14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. 15 Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. 16 The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here. 17 But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children. NLT
Common Denominator
The one common denominator that never changes in our lives is God with us. We cling to Him and stand in faith, believing the promises that God does not forsake us, nor does He betray us. God has a good endgame planned, and purposefully so, He is working it out from the unseen to the seen. I hope in times such as these we will stand firm in our faith and believe that God is working good in the unseen. I hope we patiently endure and do not doubt God, because He has been trustworthy our whole lives. God has a good plan and will purposefully and eventually break through with it, and we will see in heavenly hindsight that He did not give us more than we could bear. He promised us that. Today, if we are waiting on God, we wait in faith, stand firm in trust, and wholly-holy believe, God will come through for us, Yes, God will miraculously intervene. I know we believe in God, now it is the time to take that next step and believe God.
Lamentations 3: 22The faithful love of the Lord never ends! (3:22 As in Syriac version; Hebrew reads of the Lord keeps us from destruction.) His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. 26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. NLT
Transplanting
We wait for God in hope and when He breaks through this present darkness, Oh YES, the outcome will be more than what we ever could imagine or hope for. Yes, more than we hoped for, this is how our Way-Maker God rolls. AWE-GOD! We Praise Him! Even with the constant streaming of the bad news of lawlessness winning and justice being stomped out, evil being in our face, we still hope in our God. Our focus is on our future in God’s Kingdom. In times such as these, we detach our heart strings from this world, so the culture of the world can no longer tug on them. Transplanting our heart strings in God’s Kingdom, we anchor our lives to God first, to His way, to His Truth and His love, this is where the strength we need to patiently endure is found. Don’t Give Up!
Isaiah 43:18-19 The Passion Translation “Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. 19 I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.
Thanks for stopping into The Bridegroom’s Café today. We hope your meal at the “Miraculous Musing” table was soul nourishing. The 1 Minute Rumble Videos’s are a new addition to our Café, they are a great bite of wisdom, encouragement and exhortation. I highly suggest you subscribe to the Heart TO Heart Channel here: https://rumble.com/c/c-278341 on Rumble, so you don’t miss one of these 1 Minute Encouragement Videos. They are amazing! God bless ya. KimberlyMac