Live Forward
Life is tough. It never stops demanding more and more from us. The mounting responsibilities, obligations, appointments and deadlines seem unending and often times overwhelming. We’re so inundated by what the world says we have to do, that we often times fail to make time for what we know we should do. We should be spending time in God’s Word, but we have to run errands before the stores close. We should be taking time to be still and listen for God’s instructions, but we have to hurry up and listen to all the voicemails we missed while we were out of the office. We should be giving our tithe but we have to upgrade our cellphone. We should be telling people about Jesus but we have to tell our social media followers about what we had for dinner.
We live our lives backwards and yet we continuously question why we never seem to make any forward progress. With our words we say how much we love God, but with our actions we show how much we love the world. We constantly sow into the things of the world and wonder why we aren’t reaping the things of the Spirit. We put in the work necessary to get promoted on our jobs but can’t seem to understand why we still haven’t been promoted in the Kingdom. We’re willing to do whatever it takes to receive temporary rewards here on earth, but so often seem to have an excuse for not doing what it takes to receive eternal rewards in heaven.
Can you even imagine what our lives would be like if we actually lived forward instead of backwards? What if we actually spent time in the Word each day before we spent time in the world? What if we actually worshiped God with our first fruits instead of just marking pay tithe off our to do list? What if we would actually listen for God’s instructions and obey them without hesitation instead of going non-stop and questioning why we don’t hear from Him? What if we actually used our gifts, talents and abilities to bring God glory instead of using them to bring ourselves glory? What if we actually had the heart of a servant instead of always fighting to be the lead?
God tells us in His Word that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We can no longer try to rely on our own logic and reasoning to navigate our time in the earth. Our natural minds cannot process spiritual things. Because of this, we may not understand God’s ways or many of the things He asks us to do. If we understood it all, we wouldn’t have to trust Him at all.
The enemy doesn’t play fair. He twists everything that is of God. The very things the world tells us we need to do to get ahead, are often times the very things that cause us to leave God behind. Stop trying to figure your life out. Stop trying to do things your way. Stop living your life backwards and starting today, choose to live forward.
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