Don't Get Stuck in the Past

"Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:18-19

God's words to His people Israel, through His prophet Isaiah.

God was calling His people to not get so caught up in the past that they missed what God was doing right now. He wanted them to see what He was doing currently.

God didn't want His people to be so focused on things that had happened in their past, that they missed how He was making a way for them now. The way He had done things in the past was great. But, if they just focused on that, they ran the risk of missing the different way that God could be doing something today.

I think we face the same danger in our lives.

We have an experience where God does something and then we keep looking for Him to do things the same way in the future. And while we're looking for Him to do the same thing, we miss that He is doing something new in the present.

We miss the way that God is working now, because we're so caught up in looking for a repeat of what God did in the past.

We can also be held back by things in our past that we wish were different. We keep looking back at what happened and wishing it was different. We dwell on it and we stay stuck there.

But, the truth is God wants to do something new now. We're so stuck in the past, that we miss the way God is working now. He wants to do something new in our lives. But, if we're stuck on the things of the past, we can miss it.

We miss the way God is working now, because we're looking backwards at what has already happened and wishing it was different.

How are you doing at seeing what God is doing now?

Are you expecting God to keep doing things the same way and possibly missing something new He's doing now?

Are you stuck in the past and missing what God is doing now?

Do you want to see the new things that God is doing now?