Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).
At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for
the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our
yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by
the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our
yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a
ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past
to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go
before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send
His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that
we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would
undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand
reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our
conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste
. . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the
haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of
impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of
knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold
broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost
opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this
destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future.
Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
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