#7. No More Looking Back

I’m a sentimental person.  I keep cards, letters, ticket stubs, and even rocks that remind me of places I’ve been in the past.  But at times, I’ve spent too much time looking back, questioning and dwelling on things I can’t change.  I know that God uses our circumstances to grow us, change us, and make us more like Christ, but His intention isn’t for us to live in the past.  The past is over.  It’s done.  If God meant for us to continue in that same place, He would have kept us there.  If He’s called us out, it’s to move on to something better.  And we can’t reach those blessings unless we’re willing to let go of the past.

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they grumbled because they missed the cucumbers, melons, and fish of Egypt (Numbers11:5).  If I were Moses, I probably would have said something like, “Oh, you miss the melons, do you?  What about the slavery, remember that?  Do you miss that, too?”  Only I’m not Moses.  I’m one of the Israelites, too often stuck in my own past.

It’s important to remember God’s past faithfulness and blessings.  He provided for the Israelites, even when they were enslaved in Egypt, and He’s blessed me in the past.  But remembering God’s past blessings shouldn’t bring sadness if He’s now chosen to take those things away (Job1:21).  It should instead bring encouragement that if God has been faithful in the past, He will continue to be faithful in the future (Philippians 1:6).

The Israelites didn’t have cucumbers and melon in the wilderness, but God did provide them with manna.  And they never could have made it to the Promised Land if they hadn’t left Egypt.

"If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.  That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them…

…It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible."

-Hebrews 11:15-16, 27

God, help me to keep my eyes on You alone, because You hold my past, present, and future in Your hands.