Leave the Past, Look for the New Thing

Isaiah 43:18-19 keeps "coming across my desk," so perhaps I need to share it with you!

It says, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.    Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?  I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

The past needs to stay in the past!  If the disciples had stayed on the Mount of Transfiguration and built the three tabernacles they had proposed to build, they would have missed the death, burial and resurrection of the Jesus AND the Day of Pentecost, where they received power to do what God had called them to do.  (Matthew 17:1-4 says, "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,   And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.  Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here:  if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.")

There are so many examples of our needing to let go of the past and move forward.  (The Israelites' leaving Egypt comes to mind.)  Sometimes the past was good, and we either want to stay there or recreate it.  Sometimes the past was horrible, and we are glad to be rid of it.  Either way, God has a new thing to do in our lives. 

No matter where we are, even in the wilderness or desert, God has promised to provide; AND, He says we will know what He is doing!!  That is so wonderful!!!  

So, it is time to move out of the past and walk into what God has for us!!  I am starting today, striving to break habits that have been distracting me:  fun things, not bad things necessarily, mindless things (TV, games, things that I have been using to fill in the gaps in my life between appointments), and filling that time working on the projects God has given me.  I am such a creature of habit, and this will be hard, but the verse came up yesterday in my Bible study, that ". . . . With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."  (Matthew 19:26)  I know this is taken a little out of context, but I think the meaning still holds!!  =)  I am trusting God to help me "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset" me so that I can "run with patience the race that is set before" me, doing the work He created me to do.  (Hebrews 12:1)

Pastor McGlamery quoted Zig Ziglar yesterday:  "You are the only person on earth that can use your ability."  Guess I better get busy!!  I can hardly wait to see what God has planned for me this year!!!

Thanks for "listening!!"