Upheld in Stepping Into

Forgetting Former Things

It’s still January. We are still talking about new year stuff.

I recently read a devotional based on the Scriptures in Isaiah 43 about forgetting the former things—in other words—don’t dwell on the past. Easier said than done.

At this time of year we may tend to dwell on the past. All the “I should have said…” or “I should have done” thoughts come to the forefront.

Could you have said it better? Of course. But what is said and done is over now. Beating yourself up is like beating a dead horse (sorry, animal lovers, it’s just an old saying). So it is time to forget those things.

Stop rehearsing them in your head. There is no place to go with them anymore, now or ever.

Step Away

It’s not so easy just to stop thinking. But we can control our thoughts and deliberately step away mentally.

What does it mean to step away?

We can refuse the dark thoughts. We can replace them with promises that God has given us about restoring our souls. The Scriptures abound with those promises. We can determine to believe those promises when circumstances look scary.

It’s faith. No matter what we see.

The more we practice stepping away, the more natural it becomes.

The result is FREEDOM!

Step Into

God has promised new beginnings. A different kind of stepping. This is stepping INTO.

Stepping into His power that is readily available if we ask Him. Stepping into living faith that draws us into the sunshine from the darkness.

Stepping into the path of the new thing that God is doing in our lives.

Marvin Williams, concerning the Scripture in Isaiah 43, wrote in a recent Our Daily Bread devotional, “(God) wasn’t just erasing the past but making a way to a future filled with hope and purpose.”

Wow! How does that sound? Stepping into a future with hope and purpose. And if God promises something, He does it.

Hope and Purpose

What does hope look like to you?

What does purpose look like to you?

There is an old hymn that sings about trust and obey, there is no other way.

God holds our lives and times in His hands. When we think in our minds and act on His truths to trust and obey Him, then that new path opens with purpose before us.

We just need to STEP INTO it.

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old, behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV).