Nothing in life stays the same, and most of us understand this, but when you’re single and haven’t seen movement in your desire for marriage, you might become a little concerned about the delay. You’ve been praying about a change in your status from single to married, and you’re wondering when the Lord is going to do it for you. The truth is that you have every right to be hopeful. In Old Testament times, God’s people had disobeyed Him and were not faithful to their covenant with our Heavenly Father. Terrible things happened to them because they turned their backs on God, but through the prophet Isaiah, He told them to forget about all that. In Isaiah 43:19(NLT), He declared, “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
God has not changed. He is the sovereign and all-powerful Way-maker, Deliverer, and Rescuer that He has always been. He indeed makes a way out of no way, and our faith must remain anchored in Him. He told His people to forget about all the tribulations and troubles they had endured and look to the future. Even though those of us living today have witnessed His great transformation power in our lives, this is still one of our most difficult areas; we hold onto the past and refuse to look to the future with optimism and faith.
Our Heavenly Father has seven different administrations that are written about in His Word, and they all signify aspects of His plan for creation and His relationship with humanity. Those He had chosen to be His people in Old Testament times were under the Law Administration, and they had a different covenant with God than what those of us living after the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. They were servants of God, but all of those that have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and believed that God resurrected him from the dead are “Sons” of God. We live in the Grace Administration and have received sonship rights through Jesus Christ. Because of what God has accomplished through our Great Redeemer, we can enjoy all the rights and privileges of being His children.
God’s people living during the Old Testament had a difficult time looking ahead to the future. They had been enslaved by the Egyptians, and rather than trusting in God’s power and love, they kept dwelling on their enslavement. We can’t afford to repeat their mistake. Our Heavenly Father is a forward-looking God. He has not given any living being the ability to relive any aspect of their past. The moments of our prior days are gone forever. We can never get them back, and we can’t take any portion of them with us as we journey forward. Once a moment has passed, no matter how joyful or miserable it may have been, we must release it.
As God’s called-out ones, He has commanded us to live by faith! We must live in the present with hope for the future! It is our responsibility and privilege to set the stage for our faith to thrive. We must create a space in our minds and hearts for change to occur, and we simply cannot do that by always looking back to the past. God commands us in Ephesians 4:23(NKJV) to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” This means that we must change the way we think by lining up our thoughts and feelings with those of Jesus Christ. This kind of change and having a heart for God’s plan is what’s necessary to get us to the next level of blessings in our lives.
Through our Heavenly Father’s amazing grace, He has given us a new start! 2Corinthians 5:17(NLT) tells us, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” He always wants to do something new for us, but our problem is that our minds and hearts are sometimes captivated by the past, or we have a vision for our futures that doesn’t match His.
We often underestimate the changes we need to make internally to create a space for external changes to occur. Our faith must be increased, and in many cases, this requires us to have a different way of living, behaving, thinking, and being. Our lifestyle must be one of being fully persuaded in the love and power of God. And not only this, our prayers should be focused on getting in alignment and harmony with His Will. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 21:22(NLT), “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” When our minds are renewed to God’s Word, this is the result we will receive. He will make a pathway through the wilderness of our loneliness and create rivers of joy and unity to wash away the sadness of our past.■
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Creating a Space for Change”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and KLizzie for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.