Hindsight
We often picture ourselves walking through life looking forward in time as we step into situations. But the truth is, we cannot know or see what has not happened yet. We can only know and truly see what has happened: for us personally, with others who live with us now or have gone before us, and with the God who repeatedly calls us to remember his deeds. As we “back into the future”, healthy hindsight is the key to a meaningful and joy-filled life.
May 16, 2021 – Looking at God’s Track Record
While God certainly promises what he will do in the future, his call for trust is often anchored in what he has done in the past. “Look and see what I have done. I have kept my promises. I have delivered people from captivity and sin.” Faith lives life with an eye constantly on the “rearview mirror” of God’s activity, enabling a person to move confidently into the future.
Joshua 21:43-45 43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
I Kings 8:54-61 54 Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. 55 And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56 “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. 57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, 58 that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 59 Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, 60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. 61 Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
