Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

‭‭Isaiah ‭43:18-19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The good old days.  Do you remember them?  I do.  And, if I really think hard about them, they really weren’t any better than today . . . just different.

And, here we are at the beginning of another year . . .

We often have a tendency to “look back” and see life in “selfies”.  These are curated images of instances that have taken to make an impression of us.  We end up seeing a single “frame” of our lives instead of the entire “movie”.  In turn, we build a story of our lives on several images, instead of the whole.  We often end up living in “what if” as opposed to “what is”.

Robert C. Loveless wrote these well known lyrics, “Everyday with Jesus Is sweeter than the day before.”  Everyday with Him is better, sweeter, more wonderful than the previous day.

The children of Israel were in a difficult time.  Even though they were God’s chosen nation, they continued to live independently from God and indifferent to His word.  The prophet Isaiah delivered a message of healing and hope . . . a message of renewal and resurrection.

Escape The Old Thing.  

Isaiah wrote, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (Is 43:18 ESV).  Too often, we become tied to our past and live in it’s success or sorrows.  We may blame our present on our past . . . or bemoan that today is not as good as yesterday.  Isaiah encouraged the nation of Israel to get a new perspective by escaping the things that were holding them back.  Paul wrote to the Christ-followers in Rome, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Rom 15:4)  These were written for our learning, as well as our living.  Our hope is not in what was, but in what is and what will be.  This gives us the endurance and encouragement needed to embrace our eternal perspective.

Embrace The New Thing.  

Isaiah continued his encouragement, “Behold, I am doing a new thing.” (Is 43:19 ESV)  With a burial of the old, there is a birth of the new.  In The Message, Eugene Peterson captured this thought, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.” (Is 43:18-19)  Be alert . . . be attentive . . . be anticipating.  God will bring a solution that can not be subdued.  He will provide a way where there has been no way.  It will be brand new . . . it will burst out.  Paul described this working of God this way, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” (Eph 3:20 ESV)

The apostle Paul gave us his own perspective of forgetting the past and forging into the present, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14 ESV)

One year is ending . . . and a new one is beginning.  Forget what is behind and reach for what is before.  Let your defining moments be in God’s promise and your potential . . . not in your past.  

Press on to the new thing.