Looking Back And Moving Forward

LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD

“O Lord… all that we have done, you have done for us”

“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you.

A human being lives in all three tenses-the Past, the Present and the Future.

? The Traditionalist lives for the Past,

? The Existentialist lives for the Present and

? The Utopianist lives for the Future.

However according to the Christian worldview one has to take all the three seriously.

As St. Augustine rightly puts it, “A Christian entrust his past to Gods mercy, his present to Gods love and his future to Gods providence”

In the Bible in general and in the Old Testament in particular, we find a special emphasis on “Looking Back.”

? There are positive and negative connotations in this practice.

? The people of God should not look back in their life like the wife of Lot in frustration but they should look back with a sense of gratitude of what Yahweh had been to them on this “earthly sojourn”

Think Positive and find fuel in failure

As a great servant of God once said, “we need to look back in order to move forward”. . In this regard, we can look at three aspects of our life.

Let Go of the Past to Move into the Future

• You can’t drive life’s road without sometimes hitting bumps like regrets, disappointments, and tragedies. When you do, it’s easy to get stuck there, gazing back into your rearview mirror at the past.

• But God wants you to move on toward the future He has planned for you.

• It’s a future filled with hope – but to get there, you’ve got to turn your focus forward and look through the windshield at the road ahead.

• Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes.

• The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.”

Here’s how you can let go of the past to move into the future:

I. God wants us to learn from the past—not live in it.

A. When the events of the past consume us, we have little interest in the future.

When they were stuck in the past, God said to Israel in Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

B. God wants us to learn the lesson of the past, but keep moving.

? The Apostle Paul cited the stories of God’s people in the Old Testament to make the point that we are to learn from the past.

? He writes in 1 Corinthians 10:11-13, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Get rid of the poison of bitterness.

A. Bitterness will DEVASTATE you spiritually

? We can’t control what happens in life, but we can control how we respond/react!

? Holding bitterness is walking in the flesh

? In the Bonds of Bitterness? Let Christ set you free, because: Bitterness will devastate you spiritually…

B. Bitterness will DESTROY you physically

? And medical doctors say bitterness will affect your body, your physical health.

? Bitterness has been medically linked to glandular problems, high blood pressure, cardiac disorders, ulcers, and even insanity.

An article from The Gospel Herald:

“There was a man whose health was good. He was sturdy and strong. His heart action and blood pressure were fine. Then his father died, and he got into a prolonged legal dispute with his sister about their father’s will. The case went to court, and the sister won. From that day on, the man could think of nothing more than the lawsuit and his sister. He talked about it, he thought about it, he filled himself w/ it, it became an obsession. And each day, he grew to hate his sister more. Then he began to have difficulty with his heart and blood pressure. Next, his kidneys bothered him. Before many months, complications killed him. It seems obvious that he died from bodily injuries brought on by powerful emotion. I believe the man killed himself, death by bitterness.”