LOOKING FORWARD... NOT BACK
Isaiah 43:18-19
Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall we not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Many years ago I was running a semi-guided hunt in Western Colorado for elk and mule deer. One hunter shot a buck high up the mountain one late afternoon and didn't get back into camp until well after dark. We were very concerned for his safety. When he got to camp he was dragging a buck, and both he and the buck were soaking wet and covered in snow and pine needles.
After he had some water and got into dry, warm clothes he told the story of how he had shot a mule deer way up high, just under the rim of the mountain. As he was dragging it down, he was walking backwards to be able to pull harder. At one point while looking back he fell over a 10 ft cliff and luckily landed in some small evergreens, which broke his fall. He was very lucky that he didn't fall on sharp rocks as it may have ended his life.
Far too often we spend much of our time looking in the rearview mirror of life. We remember the hurt and pain that we have dealt with. Those that have wronged us engulf our thought process. Our mistakes and past sinful decisions bring us down. Before long we can't look anywhere but back and we get closer and closer to a painful fall off a cliff.
Through the profit Isaiah, God says to, "Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old". The past is behind us. Yes, we need to learn from the past, but we should never dwell on it. We can not go back and change the past, but we can change our future.
Wherever you are in life right now, it's time to move forward and focus on what God has laid out before you. He wants to do a "new thing" in our lives. God has a plan for each of our lives, but we will never see it if we keep looking back. We must look forward to see what is coming.
We have only four options... we can look down, up, backwards and forwards. If we look down, we see almost nothing at all... just the dirt and our shoes. When we look back we see only the past and the hurt from it. When we look up we see a marvelous loving God and then when we look forward, we see all that He has planned for us.
Here's to Looking forward.
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