You shall not go out with haste...for the Lord will
go before you, and the God of Israel will be your
rear guard--Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday
"...God requires that which is past." (Ecl 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 from remembering the yesterdays. Our present
enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by yes-
terday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our
yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in or-
der to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth
for the future. God reminds us of the past to protect
us from a 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
"For you shall not go out in haste..."
As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the
haste of impetuous, forgetful delight nor with the quick-
ness of the impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out
with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel
will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable
things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities
which will never return, but God can transform this de-
structive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness of
the future. Let the past sleep, but let is sleep on the bo-
som of Christ. Leave the broken Irreversible Past in His
hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future IN HIM.
- Oswald Chambers
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