The Windshield and the Rearview

Ever wonder why your car’s rearview mirror is so small, while your windshield is so large? It’s because what’s in front of you is much more important that what’s behind you.

The Apostle Paul approached life this way: 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. (Phil. 3:13-14) 

Forgetting those things which are behind…

We all have questions and regrets. Why did she leave me? Where did I fail? Why isn’t my life, career, marriage, etc. doing better? Have I made the wrong choices? Was I lacking in faith?

We can’t answer these questions because we don’t have all the information required to do so. If we were God, we’d understand everything. But we’re not, so we don’t, and we can’t.

So my advice to you is the same as Paul’s: just forget about it. Don’t keep going over old history. The past is done. Even now it’s growing smaller and smaller, fading in the rearview… 

Reaching forward to those things which are ahead…

Your future will be brighter than your past. The Bible promises it. Prov. 4:18 says, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that grows brighter and brighter to the perfect day. So lift up your eyes (Gen. 13:14). This is a new day. Looks out that wide windshield and expect the best times of your life, because they’re coming.

I press toward the goal for the prize…

 Don’t give up on your dream. Reach for it. Press toward it. Because there’s a prize. (Yes, a prize!) And the prize is that one day soon you’ll get to see your dream come true.

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Nothing Is Impossible

Luke 1:37–For nothing is impossible with God.

Back in the ’70s I led a Christian rock band called The Awakening, a name, cheesy though it may seem, that would ultimately prove prophetic for a boy named Paul. Greenfield*. It happened on an Easter Sunday evening at the band’s last-ever concert. Everything was going as planned until the middle of the last song, when I saw a man entering the auditorium carrying a child prone in his arms. The pastor who’d sponsored the event noticed them too, and arose and walked back to the rear of the auditorium to meet them.

After a short conversation, the pastor led the man, still carrying his child, forward to the front row, where they stood until we’d finished that last tune.

The pastor then stepped forward to address his congregation: “We need a healing miracle here tonight, folks. The situation is serious. Please stretch out your hands toward five-year-old Paul.”

He turned around to face the band. “David, would you and your band members please step off of the stage and join me in praying for this boy?”

I drew closer. The child was inert, as limp as a towel.

The pastor then led a simple prayer that was short on words but long on faith. Suddenly the child’s eyes snapped open and he swallowed. Five minutes later, young Paul was walking around that auditorium as if nothing had ever been wrong with him.

I didn’t learn the rest of this story until fourteen years later, when a woman, the child’s mother, approached me at a convention we were both attending. She introduced herself, since I’d never officially met her, offering a hand. “My name’s Joanne Greenfield,” she said. “My son was raised from the dead at one of your concerts.”

“Um, what?” I stumbled. “I sure don’t remember anything like that.”

She went on to remind me of that Easter Evening years ago, and explained how Paul had fallen off of a fence, hit his head on a concrete surface, and later passed away at the church. She and her husband had brought him to the pastor for prayer because they believed nothing was impossible with God.

I saw Paul again about fifteen years ago. He’s in his forties as of this writing, and is now a loving husband and father. He was too young at the time to remember these events in detail. But I remember, and now stand assured, as Joanne did that night, that nothing is impossible with God.

Today’s Prayer: Heavenly Father, my problems seem small in light of your omnipotence. I trust you to meet my needs by means of your miraculous power. You are well able and do it, for nothing is impossible with you.

*The names have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.

**The above post is from David’s devotional Encouragement Explosion, available from Amazon.com by clicking here: http://www.amazon.com/Encouragement-Explosion-90-Days-Uplift-ebook/dp/B00FRHXE68

 

Moses and Me

Psalm 37:23-24–The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.

Moses was a loser with a capital L. God’s people were being held in cruel bondage, but God devised a way to get them out: He orchestrated Moses to be brought up as the son of the Pharaoh, the heir evident to Egypt’s throne. Once Moses was in power, Israel’s liberation would be a shoe-in. Leave it to God to come devise an ingenious plan.

And leave it to a human to blow it. Moses murdered a man, making himself a criminal and fugitive of the State. Forced into hiding on the backside of the desert, he worked as a shepherd for the next forty years.

Way to go, Mo. Not only do you get yourself banished from the palace, you wind up walking in sheep poo for the rest of your life.

But it’s never too late with God…  

Just when Moses was at his lowest ebb, God appeared and offered him an assignment. Ultimately, Moses wound up as the Deliverer of Israel, a virtual king, and one of the greatest men of history. 

No matter how pitifully Moses fumbled God’s plan for his life, he couldn’t keep it from coming to fulfillment in the end. Yes, Moses turned out to be everything God originally planned for him to be.

Like Moses, you may have made some poor choices. But good news: it’s never too late with God. Keep trying. Keep believing. Keep serving him, because it’s not over yet. The Forger of Destinies can still make you all you were meant to be. 

Today’s prayer: I’ve messed up God, but I know you can restore all I’ve lost. I give myself anew to you today. Help me become all you intended me to be from the start. I trust you to do it, Lord; because I know from reading my Bible that you do things like this for folks like Moses and me.*

*From David’s daily devotional Encouragement Explosion. Check out his books on Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/David-Stearman/e/B008EKIOZG