LIVING IN THE PAST
Many people choose to live in the past.
It’s almost as though the ‘good old days’ were the best days and so we live in that place.
We all know someone who lives in this way.
They can tell you of dates and times and precious and wonderful memories and they almost carry a form of sadness, because they think that the future could never be as good as the past.
Living in this way is like dragging dead baggage through the present and into the future.
We do have the ‘precious memories’ of life that add to the rich fabric of life, but how did God tell us to live our lives?
Isaiah 43:18 ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.’
Living in the past is not the way God designed us to live.
In fact we are told to be radical about dealing with the past. The words the Bible uses are ‘forget’ and ‘do not dwell’.
God tells us this because in Him we have so much more to look forward to.
He wants to do new and wonderful things in our lives.
Isaiah 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
With the Lord in our lives, the best is yet to come.

LIVING IN THE FUTURE
Some people live in the future.
They focus on the possibilities and pitfalls that could and may lie ahead.
They usually have a goal and they are headed towards that goal.
When I am finished school – then I will start living.
When I get my degree – then I will start living.
When I get married – then I will start living.
When I have children – then I will start living.
When the children are out of the house – then I will start living.
When I retire – then I will start living.
The joy they are longing for is an elusive thing that somehow and somewhere will make itself visible one day out there in tomorrow.
The thing about the future is that it is completely unknown and it is never guaranteed.
When we live in tomorrow we are truly putting our hope in nothing.
Other people feel compelled to pull tomorrow’s cares and concerns into today.
They can’t just leave it in God’s hands, but they have to carry concerns about which they know nothing and burden today with them.
When we live in the future our guiding companion can be fear itself.
The Lord has not given us the strength for tomorrow today.

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