Just recently I was reflecting on God’s grace and mercy and recognised that we take so much for granted and do not really appreciate that God’s mercies are new every day. It is so because we spend an inordinate amount of time looking backwards! What a waste! The reality is that our God is a God of new beginnings so is always out in front of us, inviting us to follow new paths and new opportunities.
Humans are strange creatures, though. We find it very difficult to let the past go and venture into the unknown. The “past” even if it has not been a good experience, is still a “safe” place to be. Rather than moving forward, we spend a lot of time reflecting on the “what might have
been”! We look back and ponder how different things might have been had we just said this or done that, or, indeed, chosen a different path.
The reality, however, is that what is done cannot be changed. What has been said can never be taken back. The moment is passed and gone and regrets are of no value. It seems to me that life is faced most positively and to best advantage when we learn to let go and let God lead us into the places God has already prepared for us. Those places are places of growth and inspiration and challenge. God does not ever take us to a place for which God has not already prepared us—
even if we have yet to realise that is so!
When we seize the moment and give it our best shot, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit and acting with integrity and grace, we discover ourselves to be blessed beyond imagination. If we open ourselves, daily, to the possibility that God might actually choose to use this day to reveal God’s self to another through us, we can embrace the day with certainty and anticipation. We will find
ourselves being able to forget what is behind and move into that which is yet to come.
I would encourage you that if you MUST look back, then do so only to see how much God has already done in your life and draw confidence and assurance that there is nothing that you and God together can not handle and appreciate that every day with God is the beginning of Spring.
MD
