LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD Part 3 Eyesight For Today

For the last couple of months in the newsletters, we have been discussing what it means to look forward. We have come out of another year where there may be some baggage hanging on to us. The problem is that if we don’t get rid of the baggage from the past, we are not going to be prepared to face the present (Hebrews 12:1). Past baggage will cause us to remember the past that either haunts us, is sentimentally preferred, or weighs us down with regrets.

I want to say now I do not want to relive my past. There are many like Lot’s wife that look back and become a pillar of stone after being judged after the manner of Sodom. This woman would never have the opportunity to ever go forward. Her life would become a memorial of what not to do (Genesis 19:26; Luke 17:32).

The past should become a memorial to remind us where we have come from and that the blessings we have today is because of God’s abiding care and grace upon our lives. Our lives as believers are to become a witness to what is living and not a memorial to remind others as to what they need to avoid due to foolishness, or a love for this world, and a desire to experience the vanity of it to the fulness (James 4:1-5; 1 John 2:15-17).

Do I have grave regrets? Yes, but the Lord has taught me to use them as steppingstones to move forward in the ways of righteousness. Are there things I would like to change or avoid in my past because they were points of embarrassment, shame, and defeat? Yes, sin causes great suffering to the soul, broken relationships, and shame, but these experiences are the things God has used many times to humble me. They keep me pliable before Him, needy of His kindness and forgiveness, meek and compassionate enough to be able to enter in with those drowning in sin, lost in the darkness, broken in heart and wounded in spirit (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). If we are being weighed down by the matters of this world, we will not be able to enjoy the gift of life, reach our potential or fulfill our most excellent calling.

Life will become a burden and not a gift. When life is a grave burden, it is usually because we are too busy trying to carry the baggage to take note of what is happening around us. Remember Jesus established the litmus test: His burdens are light (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jesus warned us to take heed how we hear things. We also need to keep in mind that we know in part and that we can only see a few feet ahead of us at a time because we are all born into spiritual darkness. Unless the light of heaven penetrates that spiritual darkness, we can’t see where we are even going. We must grope in the spiritual darkness of this world. We may even believe that our senses are giving us the necessary ability to walk through this world even though we fail to realize that in such darkness we are not able to see the traps, pitfalls, and caverns that we will eventually fall into. As already pointed out, we must learn to develop the eyesight that can look beyond this world, but we also need the ability to properly see what is going on in the present (Isaiah 59:4-10; Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 8:18; 1 Corinthians 13:9; Hebrews 11:10).

As believers we are running a race. It does not require speed; rather, it requires endurance. We must endure to the end to be saved. We must endure to the end to receive the prize. We must endure to the end to enter into all the promises the Lord has for us (Matthew 24:13; Philippians 3:11-14; Hebrews 6:11-12).

To finish any course, we need to be singular in vision. This requires us to focus on the destination and not just on the terrain. However, to finish the course, you need to know where it goes. Just because you see the destination in the far distance does not mean you know where to go to cross the finish line. Taking detours out of ignorance, misguided assumptions, and short-sighted presumptions point to getting lost, unnecessarily pouring out much time and energy on nothing, and never finishing the race.

Jesus stated the path is narrow for the spiritual sojourner and few will find it and even fewer will enter into its way (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:24; John 10:1,12; 1 Peter 2:11). There will be those who start on it but give up and go back to that which is comfortable, understandable and pleasurable to the flesh. The challenge for every runner in this spiritual race is to finish it. It will require preparation, discipline, readiness to face any obstacle, and conviction to see this race through to the end.

There are a couple of things needed to finish the race. We must understand the route. Psalm 23:3 identifies the route as being the path of righteousness. It can’t be stressed enough that the Christian life is established through righteousness. We are to first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We will only receive life by faith, but this life must be exercised in us through the godly disciplines that compel each of us to follow after righteousness. In salvation we begin this life in right-standing because we have been placed in Christ, but to be established in it requires walking it out in obedience (Matthew 6:33; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Timothy 4:7-8). Hebrews 5:9 tells us Jesus is the author of salvation to those who obey Him.

We know that the Bible outlines the path of righteousness (Psalm 119:105). It is our map, and it not only shows us the path, but how to run the race. There are times we will run the race and other times we will stand and fight, but we must learn to walk by faith and pace ourselves according to our road map as we heed to its instructions about what it will mean to walk the walk and finish the course (Matthew 5:17-20; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 6:10-17; 2 Timothy 4:7).

This brings us to the quality of endurance. Endurance points to pacing ourselves. The way one paces themself is to understand how to run a race. You can’t spend your strength by starting out full-speed ahead and expect to finish the course. The Bible calls those who start out in great zeal as ones who lack the true knowledge of righteousness (Romans 10:2-4). To grasp the concept of endurance, you must understand how strength works, which also means understanding your weaknesses.

Strength gives you a sense of infallibility (1 Corinthians 10:12). You can’t see how, in the prime of your strength, that it will not be there to see your through and its overestimation of itself is its great weakness. Such strength stands on the pinnacle of pride that has been built up by lies. Personal strength has limitations and it can quickly ebb away in the right situation. It is for this reason we are reminded that where our strength fails us marks the greatest potential for lasting strength to be imputed to us by our Creator. Where we are weak and seek God, who is the essence of real strength, that is when we will experience His strength and learn that it is His grace that is sufficient in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

Clearly, our strength will not be the source behind any spiritual victory (Jeremiah 17:5-8). It is only as we recognize this that we can seek out the real source of enduring strength, everlasting strength, and miraculous working strength. As pointed out the only source to this strength is God, but we must humble ourselves, submit our ways, and come into line with God’s will to experience the strength to stand even in the greatest storms and battles (James 4:6-10).

Our great weakness when it comes to strength is admitting we are weak, we are needful, and we are inept in seeing a matter through unless God intervenes with His grace. When we rely on any aspect of the arm of flesh, we stand in a place of utter defeat. We will be brought low to a place of ruin.

How do we know where to stand and where to walk in this dark world? It begins with learning to discern. One can’t discern properly unless one is being realistic about what is going on around them. People who live in a type of fantasy and denial of reality will never be able to discern the spirit, the attitude and the fruits behind something. They will be like a cork on the ocean going with whatever current is available to just get by in this world (Ephesians 4:14). It matters little if something is right or not. It all comes down to the narrative and whether it fits into their preferred reality. Truth is mocked, resented or sacrificed while righteousness is raged against or put down.

Believers will not survive the darkness unless they have discernment. Discernment is developed in us as we walk in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-14). His presence is necessary to discern the unseen realm as to whether it is of the flesh, the world, Satan, or God. What many do not realize is the even evil can look good and wickedness can be justified because it looks right, feels good, and is very attractive to the flesh. Discerning is the cutting edge of being able to properly classify if something is of a wrong spirit and whether it is evil or good (Isaiah 5:20; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 John 4:1).

Next month I will be dealing with the subject of discernment in greater detail, but meanwhile what are you partaking of? The writer of Hebrews in 5:12-14 stated to the Hebrew Christians that they were still drinking the milk of doctrine and had not graduated to the place where they could be teachers that knew how to discern between good and evil.

It is easy to be zealous as a new Christian, but before you can make a real impact in the kingdom of God, you must be able to discern between good and evil. Meanwhile, the challenge for every Christian is to walk in the Spirit, not leave their first love, hold fast to that which is holy, and walk in the ways of righteousness to develop the Keen eyesight that is able to see into the realm of demons and angels, discern between truth and seduction, and stand on the Rock that will never move from what is true, right, and eternal (Galatians 5:16-18; 1 Timothy 6:6-12; 2 Timothy 1:12-14; Revelation 2:4; 21:7).