Godsperspective

I sat this afternoon, after meditating on the scripture that God gave me last night 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."
    I wanted to write something about it, but just could not think. Then I began to think about how important it is for us to be able to move on from our past and focus on the future.
    But that is often so hard to do, when you have lived in and for your past all your life. When its all that you think about, how you think, " Oh, if I could of done this and done that, maybe this would not of happened". If you are reading this now, you are alive and well, and living in the NOW, not in the then. And as hard as it maybe to accept, there is nothing that you can do about the past. Its past tense, you can not change what has already happened.
    But the good thing is, you can do something about the tomorrow, and the future. Now I am not saying that you have any control over what happened to you in the future, the only person that has that control is God.
    But you have total control over how you handle your own future, how you react to certain things that happen to you, and what you do with them.
    God is the orchastrator of our life. You were designed and created by Him. And He knows exactly what He has in store for your life.
    Jeremiah 29:11 � "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
    He knows exactly what He has planned for your life. Even before the earth began. He knew it all!! You can take that as you please, but for me, that shows me how much He loves me and cares about me. Everyday of your life was written on Gods calendar before you were even born. We are Soooo important to God!
    But we are not promised a problem free life! John 16:33 - "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
    No one is immune to the troubles of this world, No one is insulated from suffering. We are to suffer as Jesus suffered, but in His suffering, there comes meaning to ours.
    I have for many years struggled with that exact same area, and it has kept me in a rut for a long time. But regardless of the cause none of the troubles and trials that you have and will face could happen without Gods permission. Even the bad! Everything that happens to a child of the Living God is father-filtered. He intends to use everything that happens to us for His good, even when Satan and the world plan for it to harm us.
    God is a sovereign God, and is sovereignly in control. Accidents to us, is all but am incident in Gods good plan for our lives. Everything that happens to us has spiritual significance Romans 8:28 � "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren".
    I have realized that the more I have written about this, the further away from my original topic I have gotten. But lets go back there.
    So bad things happen to us, but its what we do and how we handle them that counts. I began to think how is it that we make it easier to handle. Its SURRENDER!!! We must surrender. When we surrender our past and our future into Gods hands, its when things start to happen, that�s when and where we start to see a change happening. Its when we start to let Christ in and let Him be in control and not us, and when we start being like Him, that we start to see radical changes in our lives. It�s when we focus on Him and lift Him UP, that he then lifts us UP!
    Surrendering is an act of obedience and to put it simply, it means that you are saying �Yes Lord� to anything that He asks. God tells us to do many things in His word, two of which are mentioned in Philippians 3:13 �. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. It says it right there!! We are to leave behind our past, and focus on our future, on our higher calling of God!!
    There is a saying that I have heard often, "look to the things that are (our past) as though they are not, and to the things that are not (our future) as though they are". That�s exactly what we are to do!!!!
    I�m not saying our past is not important, because it is! It shapes us and God forms our character through it. But that�s all it is. We are not to feed it and live in our past anymore. If we can�t look beyond our past and focus on our future and what God has called us to do, it has no meaning at all.
    When we can come to a point in our journeys, where we can say "Yes, its happened, there is nothing that I can do to change what�s already happened, but there is something and someone that I can focus on to make a change." You will find you will have many break throughs in your life.
    When you can honestly accept what has happened to you, believe what Romans 8:28 says deep in your heart, and that God can bring meaning and suppose to your past, as long as you surrender all to Him, you will start to see change in your life!
    God has so much to offer us within our suffering and our past. But if we are not willing to let God in, we are unfortunately going to continue to live in our past.
    We need to live for the future, for what God has planned for us, that means accepting what has already happened and making the decision to move on. By looking to the future, it does not give you an excuse to completely forget about your past though. Because it is your past that God will use in you to bless others, help and bring about healing and support to others that have maybe been through similar circumstance. Remember your past, what it has taught you, and importantly, let it give you encouragement to look to the future and see what God uses you for, and think about what Gods perspective is!!!

GODS PERSPECTIVE