Every once in a while, it’s good to revisit where we’ve been. Not to see how horrible we are, but to realize how far we’ve come.
For me, in my health journey, I look back at photos of me in the first seven months of 2019 and look at the mirror now and I see a woman who has left all her blood pressure issues behind, 75% of the meds needed to keep her heart on track, and the widespread pain that wreaked havoc on her life. She who had no energy and felt trapped now has energy and is excited about life.
I don’t realize those things unless I look back.
It’s important to look back in our faith lives, too. Paul wrote of this to the church that met in Colossae, reminding them that God, through the sacrifice of Jesus, lifted them out of the darkness that held control over them and transferred them into the beautiful world of light and life that is His kingdom.
This is us. Before we believed, before we accepted that Jesus’ sacrifice was for us and our sins, we were in darkness. Not only IN it, but controlled by it.
Oh, but I was saved as a child! I never knew that control. How blessed you are to not have known! And yet, you were under the control of the darkness. It held dominion over you. You were headed down its path, barreling full-steam toward inevitable eternal death. And God rescued you from that before you really experienced that darkness. Praise Him!
For others of us, we not only tasted the darkness, we embraced it. We didn’t fall into it, we ran into it. We chose it over any semblance of God. And God rescued us from that before it completely destroyed us. Praise Him!
Whichever end of the rescue spectrum your faith walk falls, God rescued you from the path to eternal separation from Him and placed you in the Light of His Kingdom. You are no longer controlled by the darkness of evil. You no longer succumb to its call. You are blessed to have a Rescuer who loves you too much to leave you where you were.
And when you look back to where you were and trace the path to where your are now, rejoice! You may not be where you want to be, but you are not where you used to be. Praise Him!
Take a few minutes today to look back. Look where you were when God rescued you. Envision the path evil was drawing you to and recognize the moment God lifted you from that path onto His and how far you’ve come on it.
Thank Him today for that rescue and determine to walk tall and intentionally on this journey He has you on.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
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