Yesterday
I love that yesterday is gone and today has arrived. Sometimes it's hard to let go of yesterday because there was so much left undone. So much said. So much-regret.
But then this amazing thing happens and just when we get used to yesterday, along comes today. God is so good to us. He lovingly pours out undeserved grace and mercy every day.
Yesterday for me seems like ages ago. So many little things I have forgotten, so many hard trials that left some marks. Many memories of love and laughter keep my yesterday very much in today.
There is a time to let go of yesterday. All that hurt us, all that robbed us of what we thought the American dream looked like. But our todays and yesterdays are not measured this way in God's eyes. Yesterday was who we were. Choices we made. Lies we told. Truths we shared. Friends made. Love we gave. Self that was slain, and as always- joy and pain.
This journey is not our own if we are hidden in Christ. This is His show and we are the vessels by which He may carry out His plans. We hold too tightly to yesterday. We got mad or offended. We allowed someone's unkind personality shake our very confidence in all that we thought we knew. We let Satan have a field day with our lack of trust in the God who called us to a life of more. I don't know about you, but my yesterday is too heavy a burden to tote around. I know the me who existed before Christ took over. I know the thought process, plans, schemes, and self destructing behaviors. But, that was soooo yesterday.
If God forgives us and cleans us up, why then do we choose to live in today with our heart and mind in yesterday? A friend of mine recently said "what has your mind has your moment." So true. If our focus be anywhere other than on Christ, our minds are not focused on Christs return. Remember, like a thief in the night..He is coming. The more days that go by, I sometimes think I can hear the Throne creaking.
Here's what I know: God gave me back my tomorrow. God took away the sin and regret of my yesterday. God is working all things for my good in this present moment. He does have a plan for me. He does not mean for me to be bound up in the sin and struggle of yesterday. The Bible says no man is fit to take the plow looking back. It's plowing season! If you look at the mechanical perfection of rows of corn planted by machines you will see straight, evenly spaced rows of crops as they come in. Too often when we plant, spiritually, we have veered off into other rows, of other people's business. We veer into other crops growing of a different kind. We veer because we lost sight of the mark ahead. When we plant we sometimes look back to see what's behind us. Yesterday is what we are looking back at. Again, we veer. But sisters, if we keep our eyes fixed above on Christ and the race He has called us to run, it is then that God receives the Glory for our beauty and ashes. We can't change yesterday. Not one second of the 24 hour span of time can be changed by our worry or well wishes to make things be different. I will say that we should rejoice for each other when we find our way to Christ. We should not hold on to someone else's yesterday either. We are not going to answer for someone else's yesterday. Let's be uplifting and encouraging toward one another's struggles, triumphs, and victories in Christ.
For every hurt there is an answer. It's quick and painless to choose this answer. Simply get under God's authority. He forgives. So should we. He restores. So should we. He gives beauty for ashes. So should we.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. Proverbs 4:27
In the words of Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda..."Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.'
Let's come out of the shadows of yesterday and live in God's grace-Today.
