How to Have the Best Year EverSample

Be Captivate by the Future, Don't Be Captured by the Past

History was one of my favorite subjects in school. I enjoyed learning about the past, and the past is important because we can learn much from it. In the scriptures, God often reminds His people of the past, specifically His mighty acts on their behalf. He says from time to time, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." We are told in the psalms to remember the mighty acts of God and are constantly reminded of who God is by what He has done. Psalm 136 is practically a synopsis of God at work from creation throughout Israel's history to that point. The past is important, and we should remember it and learn from it.

Too often, however, we live too much in the past. We are captured and sometimes even paralyzed by it. We find ourselves stuck in it to the extent that we cannot look forward or be wholly in the present. This action may allow our past to define us and become the determining factor in how we participate in the present. Thankfully, we have a God who is a Redeemer, and we should no longer be captured by our past.

Another problem with living in the past happens when we are overly satisfied with the past. This can keep us from being fully alive to the possibilities of the present or our future potential. We can easily fall into the trap of being "saved and satisfied," and miss out on so much that God has for us in life.

If all we have to share as a testimony to God's work in our life is some experience from decades ago, perhaps we are captured by the past, which doesn't allow us to look forward to the potential of greater things to come. God is I AM. A perpetually "present tense" God who is continually doing new things. Don't be captured by the past and miss out on the "newness of life" God has for you.

As a redeeming God, He forgives us of the sin of the past and our brokenness for His glory and even our benefit. Like the old Gaither song says, "All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life." We don't have to be captured by the past.

God has a future for us beyond anything we can imagine. The scripture says we can't even imagine all God has prepared for us. So we need to be captivated by the future God is leading us towards. Nothing is better, no life more exciting, than the great adventure of following Jesus.

Paul writes in Philippians 3, "one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

The greatest year yet will happen when we lean into all God has for us and become captivated by the glorious future He is leading us towards!

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