Forward Thinking

All of us know much more about the past than we do about the future. When it comes to the future, we have plans, but the truth is we don’t know anything about what will happen. We don’t even know if we will be alive tomorrow.

Now when you know a lot about something and have many memories about it, and you know almost nothing about something else, you naturally focus on the things you know, be they good or bad. And likely, most of us even more naturally focus on the “bad”: disappointments and hurtful experiences.

But, God, as he often does, calls us to focus on something we do not naturally focus on. In this case, it is what lies ahead. God calls us to lay those past things aside and press on toward what lies ahead. This is a significant mind change.


But you may say “My problem is that I do focus on the future and worry about it.” Response? God doesn’t just call us to focus on the future, but to do it with the faith that he holds the future. There is one word for this: hope.


So you can focus on the past, hurts and all, and cook up a nasty stew. You can focus on the future with the eyes of an unbeliever and let worry eat you alive. Or you can look to the future with anticipation because of confidence in God.


We must decide how we want to live and choose our view.


Focus Scripture




Isaiah 43:18-19


"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
[19] See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.


Philip. 3:13-14


Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.