Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 4, 2012): Genesis 35
She felt like life was over. She had been involved in the drug scene and
with the wrong people. She wanted more out of life, but wasn’t really sure how
to get it. And one day, she simply found herself running for her life. There was
this nagging question inside of her that asked why she felt the need to run. Her
life had never really amounted to anything, and, to be honest, it seemed a
little more trouble that it was worth. But she ran anyway.
And as she ran she felt someone running beside her – and then carrying
her. Someone else had entered the race, not to beat her, but to help her
survive. It was a new sensation. And life went on but now she had a friend and because
of that friend she felt, for the first time in a long time that she might also
have a future. It is amazing how the past looms over us when we don’t feel like
we have a future, and how it the past fades into the background when the future
is clearly visible.
God’s message to Jacob is simply this – I am running beside you and you
have a future. Out of you will come a nation, but more than that there will be
a community of nations. Royalty runs in your blood because kings will be born
who are your great grandchildren. I need you to see how your future looms so
that you can overcome your past.
Our faith does not rest on our past – on what we have done. Our faith
rests in the present, and whether or not we are willing to walk with God (or
let him run with us) in the eternal present. And it lies in the recognition
that what is important is not what is past, but in what lies ahead.
There are two tragedies in life. The first is when we feel that the
failures of the past disqualify us from the future. And the second is kind of
the reverse. Our past has been so successful that the future just doesn’t
measure up and we spend the rest of our days just trying to recapture the past.
But God’s overwhelming message is that our lives should be about the future –
and about what God is going to do as he runs beside us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Genesis 36
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