[Monday's Devotional] - It's Behind You!

As we begin this New Year how will you journey into it? Most of us know that the month of January gets its name from the Roman god of beginnings, doorways and transitions, Janus, a two-faced god who looks to the future and the past. While it is good to look back and remember how far we have travelled with the Lord and to recognise what events and people have helped to shape us into who we are today, it is unhealthy to stay in that place.

Whatever has gone before is past and God's plan for your life is not static and unmoveable, it is dynamic, organic i.e a living entity not a vegetable! It is a steadily unfolding scheme that is flexible. Make a mistake and our Dad will incorporate it in the plan, provided that you will commit the mistake, the sin, to him. The only voice that tells you you've really blown it is a satanic one. Surrender 'second best' to him and he will forge it into 'best' in the heat of his holiness.

My past holds its fair share of disasters and failings, probably more than most, a spirit full of unhealthy emotional baggage led to a string of addictions in my life and two failed marriages, I do not want to make light of this and for a long time I felt a failure, but it is in the past, it's behind me - the God who heals has brought restoration. My point is that whatever you are struggling with right now, take heart, the potter is shaping us through his refining fire. The wonderful news is that God takes ordinary failures and makes them heavenly success stories.

William Carey, a Midlands pastor and the founder of the Baptist Missionary Society said "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."

"I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back". Philippians 3:12-14 [The Message]

William Carey also said "If God used me no one need despair" – that too would be my message.

Dawn Milward