Don’t Worship the Past

Today’s passage is Job 29:1-25.  Let’s go!

Job 29:2-6 (NIV) 
²  “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,
³  when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness!
⁴  Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,
⁵  when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me,
⁶  when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.

On verses 1-25:  Here Job longs achingly for the years that preceded all the loss and pain he experienced.  Those were the days when he felt God’s illuminating light and intimate friendship (v2-4), when his children were still with him and life was sweet (v5-6), when he had great status in the eyes of people (v7-11), when he helped the weak and poor (v12-17), when he was filled with confidence and hope about his future (v18-20), when people valued his counsel (v21-24), and when he enjoyed great power but was gentle in his exercise of it (v25).

What can we learn from this?  If you want to guarantee yourself a miserable life, worship the past. Worshiping the past is where you allow your experiences from the past to keep you from moving forward.  We can do this in two ways.  The first way we worship the past is where we have trouble letting go of past hurts, failures and disappointments. The second way is where we are so fixated on yesterday’s happiness or success that we do not leave any room for God to do anything new in our lives.  It’s when you say, “Life was so much better or easier yesterday.”  Job was worshiping the past in this second way.

Job thought that his life would never be as good as it used to be, when in fact the opposite was true: God’s best for Job was actually still ahead.  In fact, I believe that is God’s plan for all of us: God’s best is always yet to come (see Proverbs 4:18).  But like Job, when we worship the past, we allow our past to limit our future.  We keep ourselves from seeing the good things God is doing today and tomorrow because we are stuck in yesterday. 

Are you worshiping the past?  Ecclesiastes 7:10 it says, ^“Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with reminiscing about good memories and past blessings. Doing so can warm the heart and encourage gratitude.  There is also nothing wrong with studying the past.  We need to learn from our past mistakes lest we repeat them.  But don’t worship the past.  Don’t allow your past to limit your future.

God sent Jesus Christ to die for your sins and to rise again so that through Him you would always be able to say, “My best days are not behind me.  My best days are yet to come.” Like Paul, to the extent that we may be tempted to worship the past, we need to instead forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead (Philippians 3:13).

Heavenly Father, You alone — and not my past — are worthy of my worship. Thank You for past blessings and thank You that I can learn from past mistakes, but by Your grace may I not worship the past.  I proclaim by faith that You are doing new things in my life and that the best is yet to come.  Holy Spirit fill me today, that I would forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!