A person came into counseling because of a crippling anxiety. He wanted to understand how his past, present, and future fit together. He was a Christian who was torn by guilt because he felt hounded by his past. He read, prayed, and talked to people, but he was only growing more confused. This was a condition that had started to affect everything in his life. His wife just wanted him to “get a grip.”
If a person could summarize their past, present, and future in one sentence, they might feel intelligent. Actually, a Christian who can’t is a person who hasn’t taken time to summarize what God Almighty told His children 2,000 years ago.
There are various tools designed to help with confusion. Early in my career, I used to reach for them automatically. Even as many great thinkers have said, we never learn even one thing without making mistakes, I had certainly made my share. In this area, I learned to simplify.
Anyone can summarize their past, present, and future by remembering Ephesians 2, which reveals that a Christian is a zombie—or a dead person walking, driven by fleshly appetites—who has been made alive by the new birth.
You He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. This is our past and present. Our future is to be a trophy displaying God’s grace for all eternity. That in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace.
One of the most eye-clearing and back-straightening things we can know is how to summarize our past, present, and future in one sentence. Experience His grace.
(Photo courtesy of morguefile and Bethiebee.)
(For more devotions, visit us at www.christiandevotions.us.)
The Rev. Dr. Bob Segress served as a licensed psychological clinician for twenty-five years. Upon retiring, he served for fifteen years as a prison minister. Retiring again, he began writing full-time after a period of boredom. He has written: The Biblical Approach To Psychology while serving as a college educator, The Shelton Series, and, in 2012, Ten Years Inside Shelton Prison. Currently, he writes for several publications such as Halo Magazine.