if you're afraid to move forward
a kindling post
Type type type, delete. Spend thirty minutes trying to come up with the perfect metaphor.
Make three attempts, delete every one. Try a different tack for another twenty minutes. Delete sentence.
Review paragraph. Ponder life decisions.
Finally, the easiest answer is the best one, though it takes the most sacrifice: Delete the whole paragraph.
But ohhh, the words and time that were put into it. Were they wasted?
Nope.
Those were the invisible words, helping you to get to the visible words you just can’t see yet. Typing and deleting is part of the process, and you can’t rush it, skip it, or fast forward. It must be endured.
Because if you need to give up something to start over, that’s the fastest way forward.
So here’s the word:
The Lord is going to use those painful things in your past to change the trajectory of your future. He’s not going to waste them. He never lets the enemy win. He is constantly moving in love on your behalf, and you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
— Psalm 23:5-6
You don’t have to be afraid to turn back to God. You don’t need to fear His response to the gravity of what you’ve done or what you might confess. You don’t need to be afraid to admit what happened. He already knows the things you’re afraid to tell Him.
As soon as you turn toward Him, He sees your heart of surrender. As soon as you repent, He sees Jesus standing right there, between sin and salvation, and you are covered.
Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect Love has made the way for you to live free from fear, free from your past, and free from anxiety or terror about your future.
He is longing for your return, for you to walk in righteousness, for you to be in right standing with Him. There’s no barrier. Fear has no place. Shame has no place. You are free forever as you come close and find your Redeemer. He is the warrior standing ready to shield you from the enemy, and He’s also the Master who will train you to battle on the right side.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
— 1 John 4:18-19
If you realize you’ve done something wrong — or even something you just should have done differently — remember that the Lord is not shunning you. He is not pushing you away in His correction.
The Lord convicts, but the enemy condemns. You know this already, but let’s call it out so the enemy can stop having a heyday in your heart, okay?
If you are feeling separated from God because you realize you should have done something differently, we command shame to go away in the name of Jesus.
The Lord is drawing you near in love so you don’t repeat the same mistake. So you can move forward in joy and victory.
The enemy is trying to prevent you from being close to the Lord so you will continue the mistake and compound it with new ones.
We mature by repenting, and we repent by admitting we should have done differently and clinging close to the Father who loves us.
He loves you. He is for you. He is not the one reminding you over and over of sin that you’ve already dealt with. He’s the one calling you forward into the next thing.
Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!
— Psalm 27:11-13
The Lord is not going to ask you to surrender something that generates true life in you. He is going to ask you to surrender the things that suck life out of you, though you may have become reliant on the process and the pain of it.
Sometimes we take on our weaknesses as our identity. But it’s time to let those things go.
Don’t let what the enemy has done in your life define you.
Listen to the Lord and ask Him for His perspective. He is cutting away at the false idols and old lies and habitual thoughts that have held you back, and replacing them with truth that does not waver based on opinion, circumstances, or feelings.
When you lay those things down, you’ll be laying down pride and stubbornness and fear, also. There’s tremendous freedom ahead.
I hear you hesitating, asking all the questions. But you just surrendered fear, remember? So don’t run back to pick it up again, afraid of the freedom in your future. God has good plans for you in the days ahead. Rise up and face tomorrow boldly, because you are covered by the King.
…Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
— Romans 1:4b-6
Just because a situation or circumstance started wrong, it doesn’t mean that everything that came out of it is also wrong and worthless.
Just because something began with sin or mistakes or regret doesn’t mean that every successive part of that situation is tainted.
God is the redeemer who is constantly taking the situations we’ve blown from the get go and turning them for good, wringing righteousness and goodness from where we go awry. So don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.
Take the right steps now, and give God room to move. Don’t give up on His ability to redeem.
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.
— Proverbs 21:30Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
— Romans 8:26-28
Jesus, thank You for tomorrow. Thank You for coming, for always being with us, for giving us the Holy Spirit and teaching us to hear Your voice.
Protect our morning and the rest of the day. Protect our expectations and our voice tones, our conversations and our travels. Draw us close to each other and to You, and fill the day with memories that we love looking back to, together.
Our thoughts will be Your thoughts tomorrow. We are renewing our minds, we are in Your word, and we are seeing You move in ways this year that we’ve never recognized before.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:12-14
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I remember this one. Same as before, it brought me to my knees. In a good, but not exactly fun kind of way, of course. 😁