photo: weeklysnaps
graphic: Martha G.Brady

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18-19

I was browsing in Isaiah 43 this week for another post and came across this section. It’s a great chapter!

One thing I love about this passage is the first part. Basically, it is saying, “Don’t live in the past.”

How often do we get stuck there. If it was bad, we can get stuck in past failures and get stuck in regret and spiral down deeper into depression as we remember those failures and forget GOD’s grace.

If we have glory days in our past, we can get stuck in them too…to our detriment. We remember the wonderful days of the past and forget to move forward in our present, trusting GOD for the present challenges. I’ve seen it happen in churches as well. It is very sad.

The challenge is to trust GOD to do something new! It means stepping out of the boat like Peter did. Trusting GOD to do something new and different in our life.

I am getting ready to do something new. Are you ready to stop living in the past and join me?

It also can apply to our church. It’s a particular challenge to us right now as we are going through changes. It’s easy to think about the times when we liked things as they were… a certain way that we liked, but GOD has something new for us at our church that won’t be just like the past was. It will be new. It will be challenging for all!

We have a creative GOD who works among His people in a changing world. It is easy to rest on our past laurels and decide we want things to stay the way they have been. You know, nice and comfortable? Like an old pair of shoes?

Or maybe you are hanging onto resentments from past hurts that you can’t let go of. These will also hold you back from the new thing GOD is ready to do!

Who wants to step out and do things differently when they can continue on the same comfortable path they have been going? No one! GOD often has the to make the familiar uncomfortable for us to motivate us to move in the direction He is wanting us to go.

The way of new things is unfamiliar, scary, and it is more like walking through the forest with a machete. The path isn’t always clearly marked. Sometimes it is almost blocked.

But if the way of new things is the way that is where GOD is going to be, isn’t that where you want to be as well?

Imagine going that way with Him? Watching Him make the way in the wilderness…when there doesn’t seem to be a way to move ahead? Or seeing Him provide rivers in the desert when you are thirsty and you are dry and thirsty?

Talk about an exciting lifestyle! I think I’m ready for this life! How about you?

Where do you struggle to trust GOD to forget the past?

Where do you need to trust GOD to do something new in your life?

Where do you want GOD to do something new and make some major changes?

#GiveMeGrace