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Friends, greetings in Jesus Name. Today, I will be sharing with you what I title, “Your Best Days Are Not In The Past.” A month ago in the US, I sat listening to John Maxwell, teaching a group of us some basic principles of life that makes an effective leader. He said to us, “Do not trip over what is behind you.” In other words, never allow your past experience – positive or negative – to become a stumbling block in reaching forth to the bright future before you. You know, to some people, their greatest undoing is their good old days. Like the children of Israel, they only focus on the garlic, melon and cucumber they ate in Egypt, forgetting there are better days before them in the promised land. Listen, life is a forward movement, not backward movement (Exodus 14:10-15). It becomes a backward movement, when all your focus is in the past, and not in the future (Jeremiah 7:24). You don’t win a race by running and looking back at the same time. No! You will get tripped by doing so.
Many today are getting tripped by the things behind them, and as a result, they keep falling by the wayside, unable to recover back in the race of life (Luke 8:5-15). The book of 1 Corinthians 9:24 says, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” Listen, in the race of life, you cannot obtain the prize when you become a prisoner of the past. Your past remains past, you cannot do anything about it. Yes, you cannot change what has happened in the past, but you can move on and rewrite the past by doing things differently. Hallelujah! What the enemy has succeeded in doing in the lives of many, especially in the lives of believers, is to keep their mind glued to their past. Their past failures, relationships that never worked out well, their uncle that never helped them, their parents that abandoned them, their siblings that offended them, and all manner of negativity keeps holding them bound like a spell. They become incapacitated, unable to see the glory and the power of God that is before them.
The bible declares in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Do you really love God? If so, your past shouldn’t hold you bound, because God has a lot in store for you. As believers, we’re admonished by the bible never to give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27 declares, “Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Why should you not give place to the devil? It’s because the devil has nothing good to offer to you. He can never point you to your bright future. Rather, he will always remind you of your past mistakes, errors, failures, those who offended you, those who mistreated you, and so on. What’s his purpose for doing so? He’s a thief. The bible says in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The devil always wants to steal from us, and if given the opportunity, kill and to destroy.
You know what? We know better as children of God. Apostle Paul declares in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Hallelujah! What’s Apostle Paul teaching us here? It’s simple! He’s telling us to be focused on the race that’s set before us, and never to look back. You and I are to focus on the things that God has called us to do here on earth, and not allow ourselves to be tripped by what’s behind us. Yes, never allow the good old days or the bad old days to stifle the plans and agenda of God for your life. Press forward – keep dreaming, keep achieving – and you will get there. Hallelujah! Have a Blessed and Fantastic Week. With love, Elvis!