Caught Between Past and Present

Sometimes it’s hard to look to the future and see the good God has promised us. We are caught in the struggles of the present and yearn for the good things left in the past. The challenges facing us seem insurmountable, impossible to overcome. Yet God calls us to press on, to overcome the challenges and move toward the blessings he promises us.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses recounts to a new generation of Israelites the failure of the previous generation to trust God and His promises. They were scared of the challenges going forward to claim the land God promised. They grumbled to Moses, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us (Deuteronomy 1:26, NASB).” They could only see the challenges going forward and the good things they had in the past in Egypt.

But Moses reminded them how God helped them overcome so many things in the past. “The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place (Deuteronomy 1:30-31).’” He encourages them to look at God’s faithfulness in the past as a reminder that He will carry them in the future, “just as a man carries his son (31).”

In the midst of your current fears and frustration with the present, look to the past and how God has carried and cared for you. Do not yearn for the good things of the past, but look to the future good that God wants to bless you with. Moses reminded the current generation of Israelites God’s response to their grumbling: “Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers (1:35).”

Don’t let your current situation discourage you. Focus on God’s promises, not the past. He wants to bless you, bring you to a new land filled with good things. He requires you to have faith, to trust that God will carry you. To grumble about the present, to remain in the past, will only cause you to miss what God has planned for you in the future.

Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:18-19

But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me. “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. – Psalm 81:11-12

The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; – Job 42:12

Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? – Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NASB)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28