Past, Present, Future

So I am just getting home from a phenomenal church service, with an amazing word from the Pastor. What I heard today was not something I was expecting to hear, and it has inspired me to do some writing. Some writing about our past, present and future... the seasons of our life which God holds in the palm of His hand.

Our past... the days of old... the way we were... the season of who we were, but not who we will be. Why do we tend to hang onto our pasts as hard as we can for as long as we can, even though we know that the who, the what, the where, the when, and the how of our past was all wrong? Why are we unwilling at times to let go of something we knew was bad for us? How can we hold onto something that goes against God even after we have come to know Him? I guess the answer is because the old ways, the old people, the old places... are comfortable.

We as people enjoy our comfort. We want to be able to expect what will happen next, to have some kind of control over our own lives, and to have some sort of certainty. The question is... how can we think we can be certain about anything when we are actually in control of nothing? Why do we continue to long for the days of old when we know the God of tomorrow?

Why do we continue to cling to the past when we know that God has something so much better in store for us... if we would just be willing to let go... let go of that past? How can we allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking we were better off as we were, all the while knowing that while we were that way, we did nothing but complain and long for better days?

My Pastor today brought up the Israelites and how they traveled from Egypt to the promised land, all along the way experiencing the miracles of God, yet continually complained for the days of captivity in Egypt. As he spoke about all of this I remembered how when I first read it for myself I was so amazed at the whining, questioning, and ungratefulness of those people. (see Exodus 14:10-12, 15:22-25, 16:2-9, 17:1-3)

How dare they bicker in that way, complain in that way, test God in that way, all the while God's provision was so evident to them? Yet... don't we do the very same thing?

Can it be that they longed for yesterday, which meant captivity in Egypt, due to their fears of today?
Can it be that we long for yesterday due to our fear of today?
Can it be that our fears of not knowing lead us to not fully trusting in the Lord as we face something, a trial, a sickness, or a rough season, on this day?
I think so.

Our past is gone, yet we still remember. We remember the bad along with the good. We remember feeling as if we were in control, even if that point in our life was a gigantic mess... we were still in control. It was by our own choices that we made that mess... and that idea of control holds its appeal.

Our present... this day... this very moment... it's all we have. We seek comfort. We seek safety. We seek certainty. We desire to know what the next moment holds... and not knowing causes us to have fear. That fear in turn causes us to not trust in God's provision... just as the Israelites did. Yet what we tend to forget at times is that our past was our very own captivity. We were captives to sin... and captives to the wages of sin... death. What we forget to remember sometimes... is that we are now free.

Yet still we complain.
Yet still we fight for control.
Yet still we long for Egypt in our very own way.

Even as we watched the Lord pull us out of the miry clay... we bicker. Even as we plead with God to bring us to a better place... we angrily ask Him why He took us from what we knew, and where we were. That's where we were comfortable. There is nothing comfortable about not knowing what is right around the corner. If we could only see... right?

Well God does see. He sees the next moment, and more importantly He sees our last moment. He knows where we were, knows where we are, and knows where we will be going... so why fight Him on that? Why lose heart, lose faith, and lose our trust in Him when all we see is this moment, while God is the know-er of every moment? We can't control what will come... but we can control how we will react to it when it gets here. Have faith.

Our past is gone, our present is all we may have... so we tend to allow our present to keep us bound to our past... but why? Can it be because that even thought our past may have been bad, it may have hurt, it may have been unbearable at times... but still we made it through. We would very much rather face the known than the unknown... even if the known was utterly wrong, and utterly sinful.

Well God is asking for you to trust Him. God is asking you to be willing to let go of your past... of the comfort you find in it... of the security you may feel you had in it... and rest instead on His goodness and grace. God not only wants your future, He wants your present, and He wants your past. We can either hold onto it, trying to keep some form of control of our lives... or we can give it to the God who cares... and the God who really is in control.

We can allow Him to take us from our captivity, our past... into the wilderness, our present... and onward to our promised land, our future. You see, it is in the wilderness that God molds us, God shapes us, God breaks us... and builds us back up again. It is only after this that He will then bring us forward. All we need to do is trust Him through each season of our lives, knowing all along the way that He is our Father who loves us, and what He has in store is so amazingly better than anything we had.

We step one foot in front of the other, moving forward in faith and trust, towards the treasure that God has waiting for us on the other side of the wilderness. Be willing to let go of anything that hinders. Be willing to follow wherever He leads. Be willing to move... just move... forward.

Normally I would have scriptures running through this post, but for some reason I cannot copy and paste right now. I apologize for that. But I will include some music.

May the God of all peace, the God of all comfort, and the God of all grace lead you each step of the way.

"I Will Follow" Chris Tomlin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoU8zBQE6Q4

"Here Goes" Bebo Norman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfeHml4-FAc