You can't move forward, if you keep looking back!

"You can't move forward, if you keep looking back!" These were the words that The Lord spoke into my heart the other day. I stopped complaining the moment He said that, long enough to realize what he meant. You see recently I was deeply hurt by something that was done to me. It felt like a personal assault against my character, a betrayal of sorts. If I sit here and tell you what it was it might seem petty because well in a way it was, but it hurt me. And as I prayed to The Lord and I asked him why I reacted the way I did. Why it hurt so much, why me. He said, " you can't move forward if you keep looking back."

Honestly at first, I was confused, what do you mean Lord? And then I realized I've put the Lord's plans at a standstill because I've been waiting on my past to move into the future with me. What I mean by that is this, many times in our lives The Lord allows things to happen in our lives to test us and to prepare us. He sifts us from our comfort zone and puts us in these perdictaments to keep us on our knees and dependent on Him.

A little over a year ago The Lord told my husband and I that it was time to move to another congregation. This was a hard thing for me. You see I always knew that leaving our church was something that would happen, but many years ago when we wanted to leave The Lord would say no. And we were very obedient to Him in regards to this. For months before we left we felt The Lord tugging at our heart that it was time, and we were very slow to leave.

In our understanding it wasn't the right time, we were about to buy a house closer to our church, we were going through a really tough trial in our marriage, we just couldn't understand why now, but we finally made the step and approached our then Pastor. And it was hard and it was painful. But more than anything throughout this entire time, my heart was tied to these people and my mind would drift
to "the good times" and it would stop me from fully experiencing what The Lord wanted me experience now within my new congregation.

You see we often forget that we serve God, it's not the other way around. The world revolves around Him and what his will is. I realized that I was so stuck in my sisters and brothers, how they were doing. How much I missed them, that I neglected to say God use me to glorify you wherever you send me.

In no way am I saying you should stop loving or praying for those you've left behind. But don't let the past dictate your future. Don't let it derail the plans The Lord has in place for you.

Regardless of where we are in our lives The Lord will use every situation for His glory. In your brokeness He will glorify Himself. In your sickness, in your divorce, in your abandonment He will heal, transform, and exalt Himself.

I realized in my pain that I needed that! I needed that sift in attitude and perspective to
recognize that I need to keep my eyes on Jesus instead of looking back. I needed to see that The Lord wanted me to move forward, to keep going, to experience my new family in Christ, something that I can say I was doing slowly. I was leaning on my past.

Don't look at your circumstances and question, judge, or mistreat. Instead say Lord I'm not sure why, but I trust in your process. I trust that you will order my steps, I trust that you will prosper me and that you have plans in place for me.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says The Lord. " They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." -Jeremiah 29:11

I pray beloved that as you embark on your journey with The Lord regardless if it's a long awaited experience like marriage, a new baby, or circumstantial like grief, pain, despair, that you take a leap of faith and you keep your eyes on the Almighty, All- knowing, All- powerful God!

Blessings,