Look Back...

LOOK BACK…History is a potent thing. However, many of us look back into our history wrongly. Some are so rooted in their history that they can’t make needed changes. Some are so affected by regrets in their history, they can’t be effective today. Some give history so much power, that they see it as a negative predictor of their future. Still others hold such an exaggerated and nostalgic feeling about a part of their past that they are riddled by discontentment now. Yes, some people are limited by history. But there are those who have learned to use history as an empowerment. This is wise…
“Those who are wise…will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.”
~Psalm 107:43
Wise people see something in their history that others overlook. They see the unfailing love of the Lord. In fact, they look for it intentionally when they need encouragement. We all face impossibilities in this life…times when the need is greater than our resources. Oft times is money, sometimes health, and other times it’s relational pain…God forbid the times when it’s all three at once. Unfortunately, even that happens. At these times, one of our great recourses is to look back to the other seasons in our history when the seas were rough, and we were seriously outmatched. How did the unfailing love of the Lord show up then? He did show up, didn’t He! He did get you through to this point, didn’t He! Yes there was pain but He showed up with relief, didn’t He! It’s these remembrances from our past that breathes strength into our present. It’s these realizations that makes our future secure…even though it doesn’t look good now. This is what the wise know…its what the wise do. They stroll back through history and revisit all God’s show-up moments. Then they rest in the knowledge…that after all of His unfailing attention in their past…it’s unlikely that He’d decide to pull a ‘no-show’ now. That’s just not Him. ~Verlon