From Past Lessons to Future Blessing (2)

God knew the heart of man all too well! He had seen how even when He had shown people the right way to go, that they had often wanted to follow their own carnal nature and, as we might say today, ‘do their own thing’! No wonder God had to reinforce His directions to Joshua as they were about to enter the Promised Land by reminding them not to add to or take away from the instructions He had given them.

All too often when praying with people I have had to help them see that the problems they were now facing had arisen because at critical stages in their own pilgrimage they had tried to rewrite God’s Word and make it say what they wanted it to say! It’s so easy to close our eyes to the truth and to justify going in a direction which, in our hearts, we know to be wrong. Hindsight is a great teacher, but if we ignore the lessons that hindsight gives us, we will never have God’[s foresight to lead us into His future.

The beginning of a New Year is always a time of both challenge and opportunity. The world talks about New Year Resolutions - most of which are usually broken during the opening days of the year! I would prefer to talk about New Year Opportunities – by which I mean opportunities to discover how faithful God is to His Word, how loving He is to His children, how caring He is for those who look to Him. For lying before each one of us is a 365-day diary of opportunities to discover God afresh for ourselves, to prove His love and rejoice in everything that He has planned for our blessing.

God has promised to show us His way for our lives, but we need to do our part by choosing to walk in His ways. In Psalm 25:14 the Scripture tells us that “the Lord confides in those who fear Him.”

Prayer: Thank you Lord that You have given us Your Word and that it is a light for our feet on the pathways of life. Help me day by day to make right choices as I choose to live in the love and fear of the Lord in the year ahead. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.