Have you ever tried to navigate your life while looking in a rearview mirror? Have you ever wanted to improve your present circumstances and have a hopeful future, yet your gaze is obsessed with the failures and frustrations of the past?
The Bible warns against this. “Let your eyes look directly ahead,” Solomon writes, “and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you” (Proverbs 4:25 NASB).
The apostle Paul had to learn this lesson as well. He had both successes and failures in his past, but he made it clear that his eyes weren’t focused in that direction:
One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Notice that God’s calling on your life is an “upward call.” He has better things in store for your future than you’ve experienced in your past. But you need to have a vision for that brighter future, so you can press on when times get rough, and you’re tempted to look backward.
Take a moment to pause and thank the Lord that He is doing a “new thing” in your life. Even if you are going through a dry place right now, praise Him for planning to “make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
He will make a way forward for you, even when there seems to be no way.
Roone Acree
~Christ Fellowship