Honest Thoughts from a Pastor

I could go a million different directions with this title. Most of the time when I hear this, people are upset about something. They won’t go back to a church because the preacher didn’t drive 500 miles to some hospital to be with their fifth cousin during an x-Ray. They won’t go back to a doctor because they had to wait. They won’t go back to a restaurant because they received bad service. However, what I’m thinking about has nothing to do with location. I’m talking about the past.

So many people today want their future to be great while still living in the past. I must confess that I have been guilty of this. I wanted the “good old days”, but they really weren’t that great. God is all about doing something new. He has no desire to leave you the same.

So why do we go back? What is so great about dysfunctional relationships? Porn addictions? Religious ritual without the power of God? It isn’t great, but the devil will keep you in the past to paralyze you from reaching your potential in Christ. God has a greater life for you ahead if you will live in obedience to Him. Am I proposing that it is easy? No! But I am saying that you will live an unfulfilled life as long as you keep going back, trying to make things the way they used to be.

If Jesus Christ is your Savior, the words of this song by William McDowell say what you are and the life you should desire to live.

I’ve been changed, Healed, Freed, Delivered I’ve found joy, Peace, Grace, And favor. All my shame, Guilt, Sins, forgiven No more chains, Fear, My past is over

And right now is the moment
Today is the day
I’ve been changed
I’ve been changed
I have waited for this moment to come
And I won’t let it pass me by…

I won’t go back, can’t go back, to the way it used to be before Your presence came and changed me.