Be Different

The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore PUT ON CHRIST.  Henry Drummond

Is eternity your guide and is God your GPS?  I have GPS on my car and one of the things I noticed last weekend is that when I didn’t listen to her instructions a voice would come on and say “go thirty feet and make a legal u-turn.”  When I ignored that directive, she would tell me “go 1 mile and make a legal u-turn.”  When I ignored her again she told me, “if you are going to just ignore me I am not going to talk to you anymore.” She really didn’t say that but I kind of like the fact that she was warning me to make sure I performed a legal u-turn as opposed to an illegal one. 

Let Go of Regret & Be Different: One of the most important lessons I have learned is that I can choose to be happy and part of that comes from not living in the past.  If I am constantly looking back or turning around and going back to visit all of my regrets and all of the wrong things I have done in my life, I will never be happy like God wants me to be.  I cannot change the things I have already done so it is counterproductive to keep visiting those things I regret.  The thing I can do is to be different than I was in the past.  

I’ve Always Done It That Way:  Have you noticed that life is constantly changing around us every day?  If we know that everything is constantly changing we need to adapt.  Sometimes the very things that are changing around us are for our own good.  If God is doing the changing in us, then we know they are for our own good and we can trust that He knows what is best for us and adapt to those changes.

Forgiveness: Are you holding onto resentment and anger because someone hurt you in the past?  Forgive that person and move on.  Does the other person deserve forgiveness?  No.  But do we deserve what Jesus did for us by dying on a cross for the weight of our sins?  No.  So focus your life on Him, forgive, and move forward and away from the hurt, anger and resentment.  Happiness will be your reward if you forgive and move on. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, when I take my eyes off of You and return to my past regrets I lose.  I don’t deserve what Jesus did for me.  How can I hold something against someone else when I don’t deserve Your forgiveness.  If I keep my focus on an eternal life with You, then the things going on in my life now will become insignificant in comparison to what I have to look forward to.  Help me to be different.   

Scripture: Pressing Toward the Goal

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Philippians 3:12-16