Letting Go of What Didn't Happen - Your Nightly Prayer - October 8th
Letting Go of What Didn’t Happen
Your Nightly Prayer
by Britt Mooney
TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Isaiah 43:18
SOMETHING TO PONDER
People naturally have expectations. Our brains try to predict what’s coming, and we predict based on patterns and what we think is right. Of course, others may not have the same ethics, and our expectations go unmet: the office didn’t celebrate my birthday, the doctor didn’t provide the right care, and my girlfriend rejected my marriage proposal.
Sometimes we don’t communicate those expectations. But even when we do so properly, people are human and let us down. These unmet expectations go from the simple to the very serious. And the more serious, the greater we feel a wound. Perhaps a parent, meant to be faithful and present, abandoned us. Or a child responded to our love with abuse and theft.
The more serious or valid the unmet expectation, the more we find it difficult to forget and forgive.
While it may be impossible to fully forget, God attempts to lead us in life and blessing by calling us away from dwelling on the past.
First, we can’t change the past. Our dwelling upon it (being consumed by the wound and the lack, what we should have had we didn’t) can’t change it. Such dwelling upon it further hurts us as we become stuck in the past. Holding onto offense, however valid, leads to offense and a loss of faith (Ephesians 4:27).
Second, dwelling on the past denies God’s ability to forgive and redeem all things. God doesn’t allow his love to be limited by our mistakes or sins. Satan, our spiritual enemy, wants us to relive those hurtful moments. God can turn all things to good (Romans 8:28).
Third, dwelling on the past distracts us from the future God has for us, one of blessing and goodness, of purpose and hope (Jeremiah 29:11). God speaks this through the prophet during a traumatic time, the Jewish exile to Babylon due to their sin and idolatry. Isaiah 43:18 is also in the same context.
God wants us to lift our eyes and our focus to God’s current and future redemption, knowing he can even restore “what the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25), redeeming what was destroyed in the past. With this faith in his power to redeem, may we seek his future for us in hope.
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
We bring you our disappointment and pain. People have failed us, and we struggle to let go. However, we choose today to release our hold on the past and refuse to stay there. We trust you power and desire to redeem every wound from unmet expectations. Lead us in the hope and future you promise. Restore what the locusts have eaten. Help us walk in faith and not offense, bitterness. Fix our eyes on your love and hope, not our loss.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
1. What is an example from your life where something major should have happened but didn’t? Do you still struggle to forgive?
2. How can you view the unmet expectation with how God has forgiven and redeemed you? How has God not treated you as your past deserves?
3. What has God promised for your future? How can you reframe the past, knowing God will turn all things for your good?
Photo Credit: Pexels/its me neosiam
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