Looking Back Too Often

Philippians 3:13-14---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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

When we look back at the past too often we end up not living today. God means for us to live in the here and now not live with our eyes cast back into previous times. We praise God more fully when we relish the moments of the present. We praise God more fully when we gaze off into the future and dream of new ways we can make things today so things will be better tomorrow. When we constantly look back and yearn to return to yesteryear, we are cheating ourselves and cheating God out of the best time of our life…the best time of our life being this moment. This moment can be the best moment for you if we determine to make this moment the best moment for God and for His glory. We do not have to make this day the best day of our life. We cannot, in fact, make this day the best day of our life. We can, however, in the next few seconds, make the next few seconds the best few seconds we have ever lived. Even at the very end of our journey, when nearly all of what we have said, thought, done, believed, hoped for, dreamed about, and prayed about is behind us, our most glorious moment is just ahead as we step over into eternity. When we realize we can all be headed toward God's eternity of unbounded love, we do not want the past…we want, at our last moment, only eternal new moments full of glory and full of grace.