Take the Risk...

Isaiah 43:18-19 (Message)

Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.


Our past can hold us back from all God offers us in the present, and promises us in the future. Pain, betrayal, mistrust, suspicion, failed relationships, abandonment, abuse… and so much more. When we turn back and keeping focusing on, giving time/attention/energy to all these past wounds, we don’t see the next step in the journey.

It’s like being lost in the desert. You walk and walk until you are parched and exhausted, and ready to drop. You steel yourself and in anger refuse to take another step. You turn around and see nothing except your own bloody footprints from where you’ve been, all the wrongs you’ve suffered, the path filled with nothing but hurt and disappointments. You convince yourself this is all there is, and allow it to define your world.

If only you will believe and go a little further, over the ridge is a cool refuge, trees to shade your weary brow, a crystal bubbling stream of the sweetest water you’ve ever tasted ready to quench your thirst. Just a little more, and you will find a place more beautiful than you could imagine.

Please have faith. Look up to what beckons you forward. Take the next step. Turn around to your future, leave the past in the past. God is calling you to something wonderful, but He will not force you to go – you must choose. Be present – see what you have in your hands this very minute, and all the promise of the future. Don’t grip the sands of your past history in your fists – you will only wind up with aching clenched hands of emptiness. Open those hands, let it go, and God will fill those hands with His blessings that are too numerous to count, too big to hold.

Take the risk…