December 2013 - Staring Into the Future

Pondering/reflecting is what you tend to do as a year comes to a close.  I have been pondering about the year that has past.  I make comparisons with where I feel or believe I was at the start of the year with how I am today.  I look for external indicators of progress.  I consider the goals and outcomes I had for this year and whether they came to pass.  I try to find some measurement for success in 2013.  While all of this can be good; it can also bring death as I eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Looking back and comparing can tie you to the past.  It can anchor or tether you so that you cannot move forward.  People may experience the same event and yet some can cry while others shout for joy.  If you don’t think that is possible, then consider Ezra 3:10-13.  The relaying of the foundation of the temple was an occasion to rejoice and so the people did.  However, those who remembered the previous temple “wept with a loud voice” because of the comparison they were making.  What kind of comparisons are you making between today and yesterday?  What are we measuring?

While many wept because they were measuring the foundation of the new temple and comparing it with the previous one, God was making a different measurement.  “‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:9)  We must allow the Lord to measure the life and glory that we are experiencing.  We must be eating from the Tree of Life.  We must allow the Lord to measure today with the future and not with the past.  And … only He can make these measurements in our lives.

So, having pondered the past, look to the future.  A future that God promises greater glory and life in.  That does not mean there will not be difficulties, trials and things to overcome.  Paul and Barnabas revisited churches “strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations [pressures] enter the kingdom of God.’” (Acts 14:22)  Stare into your future.  Let God be the God of your past, present and future and conclude 2013 by moving into 2014 standing on the past without being stuck to it and allowing Him to move your present into His future promise for your life.

Journeying with you,
Merril