"WOW, WHAT IF"
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let's run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We've all got times in our lives where we look back on things and say, "what if". It just normal human nature and life experience.
Just recently I was invited to hunt with my good friend Paul in Indiana for deer and the first night out we hunted a cut cornfield that had been having a lot of deer movement. There are two stands on the edge of the cornfield and Paul chose the bigger more comfortable stand which was easier for us to get to with my ailing hip. We could see the entire field including the corner where the other stand was located
Later in the evening deer starting coming out into the field from two sides and as the sun went down we saw a few near the other stand. After the first few does and fawns arrived another deer stepped up on the berm and stood majestically looking out over the field. His tall golden antler shown as if to say, "what if you had chosen the other stand tonight?"
At the time it was a exciting and a little frustrating. I was hunting with a muzzleoading rifle with an effective range for me of about 125 yards. The buck was at about 250 yards from where I sat... but only 75 yards from the other stand. "What if"?
We hunted that field two more nights and I did harvest a buck, that was quite a bit smaller, but still gave me great memories. Paul and I sat and talked about the "what ifs" of the hunt. And while it would have been good to have taken that big buck, "what if" I had? We would have missed out on two more nights in the stand just sitting and sharing what God is doing in our lives? "What if"?
Philippians 3:13-14 tells us to stop looking back at the "what ifs" of our past and start looking ahead at the "what ifs" of the future.
"Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
God has a plan for your future, if you are His child. He will use our past (good or bad) to build on it to be used in the future. But, it's not our job to look back and think, "what if".
It's a new year... 1% of it is already gone by. Don't waste another minute of it looking back thinking, "what if ". Instead I challenge you to look forward each day with the thought of the future thinking of what could be, with a, "WOW, WHAT IF!" and then move on to what God has ahead of you.
Remember, "reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God, in Christ Jesus." "WOW, WHAT IF"... Now Go!
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