Rewriting History

Have you ever thought about the fact that the best way to rewrite history is to live your very best day today?  And, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I believe today IS the best day to live your best life.  Often as individuals, we want to try to rewrite history by taking up a cause or changing a law.  Now maybe, in a sense, I’m doing that even as I’m writing this article.

In Jeremiah 29, the prophet Jeremiah writes to those individuals that were taken into captivity.  He tells them to begin to plant crops, to build houses, to raise families even in the middle of their captivity.  He begins to tell them, through his encouragement to them, that they cannot change the past or rewrite how or why they got there.  But he encourages them that they can change the future by how they respond to their challenges in the present.  Jeremiah then speaks a very prophetic message to them by saying:  “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.’”  Jeremiah 29:11-13

I have no doubt that we must have laws that govern our society.  As a believer in Jesus Christ, there is a greater law that we are given that says we are to love the Lord our God with all our soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.  Many times, through conversations, you can discover what is in a person's heart.  The Bible tells us that out of our heart, our mouth speaks.  In his speech, “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King talked about judging a person according to the content of their character.  I believe in my heart he was referring to a believer in Jesus Christ who was seeking to change the present, not by focusing on the past or trying to change the past but rather trying to rewrite the future by living out the character of Jesus Christ in the present.

Today, I have no desire to try to change the past.  I have no desire to try and figure out the future.  However, I do seek to be the very best that God would want me to be today.  When I am able to do that, I can make a difference in the future because I am reflecting the character of Jesus Christ in the world in which I live.  

Will you join me in rewriting history in a way that gives glory to God?  May we begin to live out a Christ-centered life in every aspect in every relationship, seeking the loving law of God over and above even the laws of this land.  May God grant you courage and strength to reflect His character in the world around you.

Blessings,
Pastor Dan