He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so
long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT
HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” --Hebrews 4:7
Man for sure possesses the present and, in a certain measure, the
future. Man does not possess the past, ever! If we choose to live in the past,
we choose darkness and we exclude God, for He will not move to the past with
us. Therefore, every time we venture into the past with our mind and emotions,
we venture there alone. In fact, God calls us, always, to move from the past,
for to dwell there is to find ourselves in a place where there is no hope. The
Jews were in the world without a hope. That is, they were trusting in the
things of the past--the law and the security of ritual and formula—and
neglecting what God was bestowing on them in the present, which is Jesus.
Does it not make sense that God wants to be the God of the NOW? We speak
of a personal relationship with Him. How can a relationship be personal if it
is not a current relationship? To move into the past is to move away from God,
and it is sin. Many today are counseled to relive the past in order to mourn
over it and work through it; they are even warned that if they do not, their
life will remain in constant turmoil. If the past created my problems, why
would I want to return and spend time there? In my office I spend up to one
hour looking at the past of an individual. The only reason is to bring understanding
of its impact so that the person need never go back to it. Living in the past
will always thwart growth, not something enjoyable to anyone.
In the past we all had wonderful successes and terrible failures, times
of great joy and unbelievable depression. Fine, but now what? Today hear His
voice! God says do something today and do not live out of the past, where it is
true we provoked Him, but I refuse to discuss that. I want to discuss today.
Yesterday is no excuse for today! Many use it as such. “I cannot love today
because of emotional hurt yesterday.” “I cannot give today because of all my
rejection yesterday. I need to take.” Experience what it means to be a person
walking with God daily, a present activity. Not only do we walk with Him, but He
walks among us, all in the present. Leviticus 26:12, “I will also walk among
you and be your God, and you shall be My people.” We need never allow the enemy
to steal the present by moving us to the past, and the past is anything that
happened before you read this article.
- Mike Wells
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