Psalm 43:18-19. Something New

Today’s Verse: Psalm 43:18-19

Your Past Doesn’t Determine Your Future

Do you ever let the things in your past keep you from the future God has planned for you? Perhaps your past is filled with hurt, betrayal, grief and loss. For some, the past is littered with mistakes, wrong turns, and failures. We all have those things that we want to keep secret from everyone else, yet when we feel God calling us to some task, Satan is right there rehashing that past in our minds and telling us that God could never use someone like you…someone like me. In Psalm 43, God says, don’t remember what’s in the past because He is the God of new beginnings and He’s about to do something new in you! God asks you the same question He asked the writer of Psalm 43 – “Do you not see it?“

In Psalm 43, God says, don’t remember what’s in the past because He is the God of new beginnings and He’s about to do something new in you! And He’s asking you, “Do you not see it?“

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Turn the Replay Off

The moment we gave our heart to Christ, Satan lost us as a soul to spend eternity in Hell with him, but if he can keep us an ineffective Christian, then we will not be about the work God wants us to do for Him and others may not come to faith in Christ. So instead we flounder around, living like we’re defeated instead of living the victorious life we have in Christ. Satan wants us to focus on the past. He wants us tangled up in all the skeletons in the closet. He replays every sin, mistake, and failure so that you feel worthless and useless in the cause of the Gospel. If He keeps our mind replaying the past, then we can’t see the “new” that God is doing in us. So turn the replay off and look for the something new.

Satan wants us to focus on the past. He wants us tangled up in the skeletons in the closet. He replays every sin, mistake, and failure so we feel worthless and useless in the cause of the Gospel. Turn the replay off and look for the new God is doing in you.

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The Past can’t be unwritten

In Psalm 43:18-19, God says, “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” My friend, you do not have to live with the weight of your past strapped to your back. Whatever is back there is done!

Shake off the hurt and betrayal. Forgive those people as Christ forgave you. Take any grief or loss you have to Christ and allow His peace and love to flow over you. Any mistakes or failures that make up your story have already been forgiven by God. The story of your past can’t be unwritten, but the story of your future is something beautiful yet to be seen.

The Story of your future is yet to be seen

But not only does God not want us to dwell on those things; He wants us to know that He is about to do something new….even now…right now, in this moment! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Maybe that something new is the breakthrough you’ve been longing for so you can release the grief. Maybe that something new is calling you into a new ministry where He can take the experiences of your life and use them for His glory. What is it He is calling you to do for Him? He wants to do something new in you today. Will you surrender to His will? What might be holding you back?

Two People from the Bible with a past

King David

David is one of the most known people from the Bible. He’s called, “a man after God’s own heart.” He brought a sling and rock to sword fight against a giant – and won. Samuel anointed David king of Israel while Saul was still on the throne. Saul became jealous of David and hunted him down and tried to kill him on several occasions. His own son rose up against him and tried to take the throne from him. But one of the things David is most remembered for is his encounter with Bathsheba.

While David’s men were out at battle, David home and he looked out his window and saw Bathsheba bathing. A gentleman would have looked away, but instead David was caught up in his lust for her and had her brought to the castle and slept with her. She became pregnant. He tried to cover up the evidence of the sin by bringing her husband home from the battle so he would sleep with her and they could then pass the child off as his. But he refused to go into his wife when all his fellow soldiers were still out at war. So David had him moved to the front line and arranged things so he would surly be killed and he was. David then married Bathsheba. So David was an adulterer and a murderer. But David was also repentant of his sin.

A Nameless woman in the New Testament

Over in the New Testament, the religious leaders were determined to catch Jesus in some kind of trap that would discredit him. They brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, ready to stone her to death. (I’m not sure if you ever noticed – but where was the man involved? They only brought the woman.) So when they asked Jesus what they should do with her, he simply wrote in the sand. The Bible doesn’t tell us what He wrote, just that He wrote. Then He stopped and said, “Let Him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

We all have sin, so no one cast a stone. One by one they turned and left. When it was just Jesus and the woman, he said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Do any of them condemn you?” She said no and then and he replied, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” We are never told the name of this woman. The point of the story is God’s mercy and forgiveness, not who she was. But whoever she was, she walked away alive regardless of what he past was.

Her message: God will do something new in you

What would this nameless woman say to you today, if she could? Well, the Bible doesn’t record a message from her to us today. However, I believe that she would say, “Stop living in your past and start living in God’s mercy. If He has forgiven you and made you new, why do you hang on to what is old.” With much excitement in her voice, she would say, “Look! He’s doing something new – and you don’t want to miss it. Stop looking behind you. Life is in front of you.”

Stop living in your past and start living in God’s mercy. If He has forgiven you and made you new, why do you hang on to what is old. Look! He’s doing something new – and you don’t want to miss it. Stop looking behind you. Life is in front of you.

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