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The past can give us a mental block
. It can colour our perception of the present and it can spoil our better sense of judgement.
The Past can shackle us and lead us into bondage. To dwell constantly on past achievements will certainly not ensure us victory today. If one dwells on past success and on past Blessings, they can develop pride in the heart.
We cannot live on past blessing! Blessing that was wonderful at the time it was received, is not sufficient for the present need today. The Lord’s Provision for the needs of His People is always fresh. His mercies are New every morning and fresh every evening.
His Grace is
“ Powerful in it’s Sufficiency” Personal in its Sufficiency”, and “Present in its Sufficiency” The supply of God’s Grace, will always correspond with the need of the hour, it is perfect in its timing and Present in its sufficiency. The Grace for tomorrow needs will not come today, and the grace that we will need for today will not come tomorrow.
There, is a real danger, which faces every child of God! And that is of resting on the past, relying on what God has done yesterday for our satisfaction today. We can seek, to have a sparkle in our Christian experience, when all the time, we are living on the stale Grace of past blessing.
The experience of the children of Israel comes to mind as recorded in Exodus 16.
They were told to collect Manna every morning, early in the day; because when the sun was up it would melt away.
Exod. 16:20 notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
I believe, that some Christians don’t’ have a singing experience with the joy of the Lord filling their hearts, because they are living in the past! Their Christian experience has become sour! It’s old! It’s Past! It’s stale, no wonder they have lost their song and their freshness.
Illustration.
A Cake can be a delicious when it is fresh! What a lovely smell there is when you come into a house where there is freshly baked cake or bread. I love to eat a piece of cake, or a slice of bread, which has been freshly baked.
But I do not like to eat stale cake or stale Bread. Have you ever gone to the bread bin and taken out a sliced of Bread only to find that it was mouldy because it had been there too long?
Friends, it is possible for the child of God to become mouldy, with a stale spiritual experience! There is nothing new about them, for they have failed to move on! Yet they have been called to walk in newness of life, and to walk in the freshness of the Present Grace of God.
Grace is energy; not a mere sentiment; not a mere thought of the Almighty; not even a word of the Almighty. Grace is as energy as the energy of electricity.
It is a divine energy; it is the energy of the divine affection, rolling plenteousness toward the shores of human need with the freshness of His Grace
My Heart is resting, O my God; I will give thanks and sing
My heart is at the secret source of every precious thing.
My heart is resting, O my God; I hear the voice of Joy and health
Resounding everywhere.
1. There are Those Things, which lie behind us.
2. There are Those Things, which lie before us.
Phil 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things, which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things, which are before,
Today is the first day of the rest of your life and for the Believer, the best lies before us. Therefore we can face the future with great confidence, striving for those things, which lie before us without swerving off course or being side tracked.
The Apostle Paul never lost sight of the Goal as he ran the race of faith! He had a singleness of purpose and we hear him say
“but this one thing”
There is “Devotion” expressed in this language.
No Athlete succeeds by doing everything! No! He succeeds by specialising
Too, many Christians today are involved in too mø…
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Oh that we would say with the Psalmist of old
”One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after”
”This one thing I do, forgetting those things, which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things, which are before”
If we are to develop our faith, and to grow in the Lord, there will need to be more dedication from all who profess the Saviour’s Name. We must devote ourselves, to running the race and reaching forth to those things, which are before us.
As we continue in the our Service for God, let us remind our hearts, that there can be no room for spiritual declension, no room for relaxation! Let us go on to “Finish the Race, to reach the Goal, to gain the Prize. The writer of the Hebrew epistle exhorts
”Let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God”, Heb 6:1 KJV
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