"You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before
you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."
"Security
from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes
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 when we remember our
yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the
memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays,
and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual
growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very
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. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into
the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight,
nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the
patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our
yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have
lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this
destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the
past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave
the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible
future with Him."
(Copied from Oswald
Chambers December 31st Devotional in My Utmost for His Highest.)
This morning as I read this, I could not help but think on
all that has transpired over this last year. I truly have to stop and thank the
Lord that He IS the beginning and ending of ALL and that I can trust Him. He is
faithful to complete that which He has begun; we need only to rest in this
fact.
So as this year closes out and a new one approaches, the words of King David the Psalmist echo in my mind,
“The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my
cup runneth over. Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of
the LORD for ever.”
~ Psalm 23 ~
It is the most amazing thing to know that we (the Body of Christ) are in Christ; therefore
we do not need to fear ANYTHING. Whether there are past failures, current struggles
or possible future battles, if we are in Christ and Christ is within us, there
is nothing to fear for He is the past, the present and the future. Oh what an AWESOME God
we serve Who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly ABOVE what we could ever
ask or think! Praise the Lord!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
