All Things New: 21 Day DevotionalSample

Letting Go and Letting God Lead Us Forward 

I was packing my life into boxes, preparing to go to missions. During that season, I awoke one morning to the Holy Spirit’s voice, telling me very specifically what to give away to whom. From my beloved collection of books, clothes, computer, and even my digital piano. When it was finally time to leave for missions, all my earthly possessions which were not in my luggage, were put away in a box of around 30cm x 30cm.

Through the exercise of giving everything away, the Lord stripped me bare. He was helping me to detach myself from the ‘old’ identity and past experiences --- both successes and failures. It also brought me face to face with relationships that needed mending and people whom I needed to forgive so I could move on with Him. He was bringing me onto a fresh, clean slate.

When I arrived in the missions field, I had to make a conscious effort to not retrieve and use the memories as references. Instead, I had an awakened expectation that God was about to do something new. And He did not disappoint!

The passage we read begins with the Lord reminding Israel of who He is. Then He reminds them of the great deliverance He had brought them in the past – the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of Egypt’s armies. Then He told them to forget all that! Why? Because He was about to do something new, something never seen before. The tenses change to the future “I am about to… I have already begun… I will make… I will create…”. The promise is for the future that has already begun. The invitation is to “see”, to look with expectation at what He has already begun to do.

Reflection

What past experiences still define your walk with the Lord or still shape your identity? Make a list of those things and ask Him for a fresh start.

Are there past hurts you need to be released from and relationships you need to make right? Bring them before the Lord and release forgiveness from your heart. 

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to let go of past experiences – both my failures and successes that prevent me from moving forward with You. I open my heart to the new things You have for me in this new season.