There is great danger in living in the past. If you have a problem in this area of life, then you ought to remember that there is an empty tomb in the land of Israel. Only one of its kind exists in the world. This empty tomb is the symbol of your hope for the future. Yes, there is a resurrection for your lost hopes.
Life can be cruel at times. It can kill with fury. It can disappoint. It can betray. Then you seal ourselves in a tomb. It is the tomb of despair. There you lick your wounds; nurse your grudges and lament over lost things of life. All around you see darkness.
But Jesus stands outside calling out to you in a loud voice: “Come out!” In other words, He is calling out to you to forget the past.
Paul echoed the same thought when he said: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead ….” (Philippians 3:13b NIV).
And that is “one thing” that is the most difficult to do. That is true with everyone. But that is the only way forward. Even though it is darkness now; God is calling you out of it to His light. It shines on your path ahead. It will guide you.
Do not look back. See, God is causing something new to sprout in your life. See it beginning to put up its head and spring to life. If you keep obsessed with the past, you will miss God’s new thing for your life. In fact, you will miss His resurrection power in your life.
He is not the God of death; but the author of life.
Believe His promise of His ability and willingness to give you new hope and beginning in life: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 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” (Isaiah 43:18,19 NIV).
For you to experience it, you have to stop dwelling on the past. Your God is the God of the present. He is acting now. Watch Him do a new thing for you. Eagerly look forward. There shall be a way in your desert. And He shall satisfy you with water in the wasteland.