You shall not go out with haste, …for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
– Isaiah 52:12 (ESV)
NOTE: I hope this goes out. With the cold, the internet has been spotty.
Today, I’ll let Oswald Chambers do the talking. These are his words until the final salutation from December 31 of My Utmost for His Highest.
Security from Yesterday. “… God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn in eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security of the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “… the Lord will go before you…” This is a gracious revelation – that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste…” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, not with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
Happy New Year and may we all take Jesus with us in our hearts each day.
Happy New Year Mark—whose little prints are those?? 🙂
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It is a rabbit print. We have wild rabbits in our neighborhood, along with chipmunks. We are a little too far into the burrough for deer. From the looks of things, their rabbit warren may be under our deck. It was next to the neighbor’s garage.
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I thought it was a rabbit but I never see ours in the winter 🐰
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It’s some of that old boy scout knowledge percolating to the surface. The snow prints are a little different from the ground prints due to the depth. These are from a small one. When I shoveled the driveway this morning, the ‘daddy’ must have been in a hurry. The prints were 3-4 feet apart. The characteristic is that the large back feet prints are outside and in front of the smaller front feet prints, more pronounced when in a hurry. These are side-by-side practically. Just exploring, no hurry at all.
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Much like the deer tracks here – deep is big, skidding is running 🦌🐇
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Great words to start the new year. Blessings to you in 2018. It’s been great getting to know you through your blog.
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The feeling is mutual.
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Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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