When journeying to our
yesterdays, we must determine to go there with God, and to God. Amid the many human, worldly and even
devilish realities of the past, our Lord was the great fact of all that happened
in our lives.
“In Him we live and move and
have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Nothing has ever
happened to us that God did not either determine or allow. He ordained the former in righteousness
and devotion to our bests interests and well-being. He allowed the latter in full confidence
of His ability to weave even the worst things into His good for our lives.
This is both blessed
and difficult truth. Knowing that
our Heavenly Father possesses the will and the capacity to work all things
together for good” graces our hearts with wonderful peace. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3). Conversely, few greater challenges call
us to the faith that demands we view the negative things and people of our past
without resentment, bitterness, mourning and despair. Our flesh is prone to these spiritual
and moral pathologies, leading to turmoil in the present if we allow them to
control us. Viewing the past
through the lens of God’s involvement often does not come easy, and we must
expect to make choices of faith that conflict with feelings, emotions and
attitudes that tempt us to ignore the great fact of our
yesterdays.
We journey to the past with
praise and thanksgiving. Doubtless,
many blessings came to us for which we have never given thanks. It is not too late to do so, nor is it
inappropriate to again say “Thank You” for the good things our Lord brought to
us. Regarding the difficult things
of our yesterdays, we also acknowledge with praise our Lord’s amazing ability to
bring forth glorious resurrection from the most sorrowful suffering and
death. “O Lord, Thou hast
pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou
hast redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:58).
Many of our mental, emotional and even physical maladies afflict us
because we journey to our yesterdays without God. Certainly, we may not understand how He can weave both good and ill into
His loving purposes, particularly the latter. It is enough to know that He can do so, and that He is more
than willing to coordinate all for His glory and our greatest good. Let us therefore build altars of the
heart regarding our past, sacrificing ignorance and unbelief regarding God’s
loving involvement in every moment.
Indeed, our yesterdays were actually His yesterdays. Nothing that happened therein is beyond
our Lord’s ability to weave glory into the tapestry of Christ that graces the
past, present and future of all who trust in the Lord Jesus…
“Lord, Thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations.”
(Psalm 90:1)
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