Two Days

Two Days

The morning devotion at school started just like any other, teachers and staff making their way into the room one by one, clutching their morning coffee. When Linda announced the title of her devotion "Two Days Not To Worry About", my mind instantly started to race. My first thought was Christmas Day. I always worry about whether my family and friends will like the presents I got them, will the size be right,or the color, will they be disappointed because they were really counting on something else. Yup, one the two days had to be Christmas Day.

Well, if it was Jeopardy, I just lost $400 because the answer was "What are yesterday and tomorrow?" The unfortunate thing is I didn't hear anything else Linda said that morning; I was too busy thinking about the title . The first verse that came to mind was Philippians 3:13 where Paul writes about "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead". He was really encouraging us to forget all our yesterdays, the mistakes and failures on our part, the hurts and wounds from other people, and the disappointments of life when things haven't worked out as we hoped. And not just the far off ones, even the ones that happened yesterday at work or last night.

Paul himself had a past to put behind him, his persecution of believers in the days before His conversion. And even though he talked about it and learned from it, he refused to let his past absorb his attention or hinder his progress in the Lord. Are some of the hurts, disappointments and failures real and serious? Absolutely! But why let them rob us of the wonderful future God has planned for our lives. Many of us need a "manasseh experience", a once and for all putting of the past behind us. In Genesis Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh, which means to forget, and declared "God has caused me to forget all my trouble". Joseph had suffered much at the hands of his brothers but he made a conscious effort to forget the past and the result was that he was fruitful in everything he did. We need to make that same consious effort to let go of the past.

Remember the Beatles song Yesterday? One part of the song says this:

"There's a shadow hanging over me, O I believe in yesterday"

I believe today is your day to step out of the shadow of yesterday, of all your yesterdays, and begin to live a life filled with hope, with purpose and with expectation.

Pastor Joe
Gateway Church