Security from Yesterday. “… God
requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with
eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise
when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to
be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God
of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a
ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to
protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for
Tomorrow. “… the Lord will
go before you … .” This is a gracious revelation—that God
will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so
that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly
happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to
the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for
Today. “You shall not go
out with haste … .” As we go forth into the coming year,
let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the
quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient
power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold
broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost
opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive
anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest,
but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His
hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
