LOOKING BACK with GRATITUDE
LOOKING FORWARD with FAITH
Hindsight is one of the advantages of getting older. I know that we must leave the past behind (Philippians 3:13) but with all the years of different experiences behind me I can honestly look back with gratitude to God for all that He has brought me through…
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I’m grateful… for...
HIS PATIENCE AND LOVING KINDNESS.
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No one knows better than me how imperfect I am and yet over the years the Lord has never condemned me. I am sure He has been disappointed in me many times, but I have never felt rejected by Him. I have felt the pain of His presence/peace/joy withheld for a period, but that has always driven me back to His loving arms which were always wide open.
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I’m grateful...
THE LESSONS I’VE LEARNED over the years.
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I’m a slow learner but I get there in the end and once I’ve learned the lesson I’ve got it for life and then I can teach it to others. For example, one of the lessons that took me the longest to learn – was holiness. I didn’t hear much preaching or teaching on the subject when I was growing up or if I did, I didn’t get it - but now it’s one of the pillars of my life, but I learnt it the hard way. Jesus “learned obedience through the things that he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Actually we can’t learn these kind of things in theory. We can learn to drive a car in theory – but the only way we really learn to drive in practice - is to drive! So in the same way we learn obedience through doing it – obeying! And that is not easy way to learn.
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I’m grateful for...
THE THINGS I'VE BEEN THROUGH
When I was young I was full of fears and lack of confidence. During that time there was a verse that spoke to me very strongly: “It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27). I needed ministry for that fear and praise the Lord for the people who prayed me through into victory. It took what seemed like a long time but I came through in the end. Since then there have been many difficult events and traumas along the way. Things that didn’t work out the way I thought they should or would, prayers that did not seem to be answered, things that I wanted to work out but didn’t, things that I never wanted to happen but did.
Then there was the worst thing of all… I literally walked through the valley of the shadow of death last year with my darling wife. Looking back I can honestly say, that the Lord was tangibly with us. It was a terrible time for her and for me, and for our family and friends but the Lord was with us through it all. I can’t speak for others but I can speak for her and for me - we have come through that valley. My wife went through it and entered into Paradise. And for me I received so much grace through it - and that horrible experience made me stronger and closer to Jesus than ever.
So looking back momentarily enables me to look forward with confidence. I know how it feels to be young, inexperienced, insecure, vulnerable and as if you are standing on shifting sand not knowing how, or if things will ever work out.
Looking back over those times and my experience of God’s patience and merciful kindness, the lessons I’ve learned over the years and the things I’ve been through which I never wanted to go through - all serve now to give me a spring in my step and a feeling of confidence that whatever happens in the future God will carry me through.
He will do the same for you!
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
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