Let Go of the Past

37 Days – Week 2 foundation

After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant: “Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the people of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on - just as I promised Moses.” Joshua 1:1-3

“Moses is dead!” It almost appears insensitive of God to state it so emphatically. Apparently God didn’t want Joshua to take time to regret, rehearse what could have been, or bemoan the fact that Moses was originally supposed to lead this moment. God was jolting Joshua out of the familiar position as “assistant”—out of the comfort he had grown so accustomed to and encouraging him to step up in a time of transition.

2017 is dead! It’s over! There are many things to be grateful for as we look back. But it was also a hard year. Jobs were lost. The economy in our region was stagnant due to issues in the oil industry. For some, relationships were fractured, marriages strained, financial plans failed. For others, old sin crept in and reestablished patterns of defeat and shame. Still others had battles with fear, doubt, and faith-fatigue. Natural disasters were at an all-time high, creating new fears and concerns. Regardless, today is the day we say goodbye to the past and hello to the future. God is going to help us walk away from some things in our lives that were once productive, but no longer bring life. It’s the painful and powerful work of pruning. 

Dr. Henry Cloud tells the story of a friend of his who bought a business with $25 million in revenues and grew it to $500 million in six years. Henry inquired as to how this happened. “When I bought the business, it became clear that the real life and future of the company was in about 20% of its activity.” After tough leadership and a lot of hard work, he was able to bring the company together around that activity. “So, the other 80% was not productive?” Henry asked. “Actually, it was all profitable. It was just clear that the real life was in the 20%, so I cut the other 80% even though it was profitable.”

This is a great picture of pruning in the business world. And this is what God wants to do with us and for us so we can be more fruitful.

This week we will sync our heart and minds with His. We will open to anything He desires to cut away from our lives. Repentance is a healthy part of our Christian lifestyle. It is changing direction. It’s letting go of an old, unfruitful way of thinking. Letting go can be painful. But, it’s necessary for us to embrace new seasons, change, and times of transition. Let us walk with Him this week and surrender to His pruning. Praise God!

January 8^th - Pastor Randy

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
   - Philippians 3:12-14

We tend to find our identity is our past success and/or our past failures. What we use to excel at and find esteem from will fade. And our past sin and failures have no authority to identify us. We can release both of these false identities today in prayer.

Heavenly Father, You are my Father. You are the only authority that can name me—give me my true identity. Help me to release the past. Prune from me my attachments to past hurts, failures and sin. And prune from me any nostalgic memories of success and “glory days” that cause me to long for the honor of the past. Heal me Lord! I release my past to you and turn towards my future. I keep reaching for what lies ahead. Ignite vision in me for the future You have for me . . . in Jesus’ name!

My thoughts:

It is so easy to get caught up in the “when I was young ……..” philosophy in life.  We have all experienced situations in life, and based on these experiences, we try to apply the same thinking to similar problems that come our way in the future.  In doing so, we come to rely on our own knowledge and wisdom, and we limit our ability to grow and expand our intellect.

Let me give you this example:
For the last 20 years I drove a 1997 Ford F150.  I loved that truck.  It got me from point A to point B reliably, consistently day in and day out.  Because I drove that truck every day I knew it’s particular quirks, noises and tendencies.  When something went wrong it was easy for me to recognize it.  If this happened, I could generally go to the garage and get out my socket set, wrenches and screwdrivers to “attempt to” fix it.  Granted, I’m no mechanic, but I knew enough to at least track the problem in a general sense and determine if I could take on the challenge or not.

I traded this truck in last year for a brand new F150.  I love my new truck as well, but by no means do I have the same knowledge with this truck as I did with the past one.  Certainly, the technical attributes of this truck far exceed the technology that was in my older truck.  Automatic speed enabled fan shutters which open wider as the engine heats up and close when at cooler temps, automatic shutoff at stoplights to conserve gas, backup cameras, sport mode, eco mode, push button gear shift rather than stick on the floor, Bluetooth, wireless, etc. etc.   Not to mention the improvements in emissions, electronics and transmission.  If something were to go wrong on the way home from work today, I would have no idea where to even begin to investigate.

You see I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about the functioning capabilities of a car/truck.  My dad worked for GM for years, and taught me how to take care of and look after an automobile.  His dad taught him, and I’m sure his dad taught him.  If I had rested on that wealth of knowledge handed down from generation to generation as my only source of experience I would be completely lost with the technology of today.  But, I continue to educate myself on these things because I want to be able to pass it on to my children as well. 

We have to take what we have learned, cut away the obsolete data, the old information, and continue to expand in new areas.  This is how we will become proficient in our wisdom and experiences.  It’s the same with our spiritual life.  There are things we have learned in the past that will bode us well to hang on to, but there are many things that are simply not as relevant in today’s world.  The method of communicating the gospel is changing in this world of social media and limited attention disorder, suffered by many in today’s culture.  In many cases the ways of teaching and evangelizing in the world 20 years ago or 30 years ago, though very valid in their time, do not resonate today.  The message is still solid, but the process of communicating has changed.  We need to be flexible, teachable and humble to cut those things that do not benefit the Kingdom and focus on the new opportunities ahead to do so.  Let 2018 be your year of expanding your reach in a new and useful manner.

Be Blessed,

Rich

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