Where Will You Be One Year From Now?
Rise up... and go

New Years often mark new beginnings.  New beginnings are begun by first considering where we have been (or are), then where we desire to be. It is sometimes helpful to look back and see where we have been in life, yet at the same time it can be something that causes us to stumble if we have regrets of where we have been. Let us each carefully and prayerfully consider the following questions, asking God to speak to our hearts: 1. How long have I been a child of God? 2. What has changed in my life since I was born again? 3. Where have I been since that day? 4. Am I where God wants me to be? 5. What am I doing to reach the place God wants me?

In these questions, I am not asking “where” in the physical sense (though that could also apply), but in the spiritual sense. Looking back to the time of conversion, and considering all of the changes that took place as a result of the saving grace of God in granting faith and repentance, all of the love for Jesus Christ that was felt and manifest, and the desire to live every aspect of my life in a manner pleasing to Him, how does that compare to where I am now?

Many times when looking back, we see little but failure: failure to love the Lord as we ought; failure to love family and friends as we ought; failure to love the lost as we ought; failure to live a holy life as we ought. We see sins both of commission and omission. In truth, if we are honest, we will find that many of the sins that were present in our hearts before conversion are still present in our flesh, although (hopefully) by the sanctifying work of God they are not as manifest as they once were. If we are honest, we must still look at our past life as a child of God and say ‘I am of all men most miserable a sinner.’

The difficulty with looking back and seeing all our failures is that often despair and discouragement come to plague our thoughts. This is one of Satan’s greatest and most successful weapons against the child of God, for the one who is discouraged and in despair is one who is stuck in his past and is not reaching the place of holiness and sanctification that God desires us each to reach.

It was during a time of such despair in my life brought on by the thoughts of my failures that God in his merciful kindness and love brought to me the Scripture “Rise up, let us go” through a devotional by J.R. Miller. (See Mark 14:32-42) This word was spoken by Jesus to the disciples in the garden when they had fallen asleep, when they had failed the Lord at a time when they had great opportunity to minister to the Lord. They had lost the time, the opportunity was gone, never to return. Never again would they have that same opportunity, never again would they be able to use that time. It is often the same with us as we look at our past; those opportunities of the past to minister to the Lord, to speak a word of love to both the lost and saved, to spend that time in prayer, are gone; the time has already been wasted, never to return.

While it is true that when we are made aware by God of past sins and failures that we are to deal with those by repenting of them and seeking to make right whatever wrong we have done, yet we must be careful lest we dwell on the past in a manner which would cause us to despair. Note that above I emphasized “by God”: we must not spend our time constantly combing over our past life looking for sins and failures.  This will contribute to despair, and will open a door  for Satan to tempt us; it will effectively keep us from ever reaching the place of sanctified service God would have us, as we will not have time left to focus on where we should be for focusing on where we have been.

It is quite clear from the words of Jesus that he did not desire his disciples to dwell on how they had just failed him, neither to remain sleeping as if nothing had happened. He told them to “Rise up”. As we begin a New Year, we need to do the same. We need to set aside the failures of the past (aside from making them right and remembering the lessons learned), to ‘Rise up,... and go’. Men and women who live constantly dwelling in the failures of the past are not needed; these may be found in great plenty. Men and women are needed who will rise up from the failures of the past, learning the lessons of those failures, and go forward to live a victorious life of service for and to God. It is this to which Jesus called the disciples.

A great comfort is to be found in the words “let us go”. Jesus did not intend that the disciples should go without direction and help; he said “us”, thus showing that they were to go together. We must never endeavor to forge ahead of our failures without the presence and help of Jesus Christ. The account that follows of Peter’s denial shows this in great clarity.

For many of us, looking back at 2011 might be discouraging as we think of its failures, the times we have given in to temptation, the sorrows and tears. But let us determine by the help of God to let past failings be a goad to greater faithfulness, to incite us to more careful watchings, to encourage us to spend more time in prayer and study of God’s Word, to be a lesson of our constant need of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Miller says “Yet why should a man squander all because he has squandered the best?” “ Because we have failed in one duty we must not give up in despair. There are other opportunities waiting...”

So we have failed, what then? Let us repent, ‘Rise up, and go’. Waste not precious time this year dwelling in the past but rather reach for the place God desires you to be.  We may well ask ‘Where have I been?’, but we would better ask ‘Where will I be?’ This time one year from now, will you have gone forward in your spiritual life, or will you be where you are now?

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philip. 3:13,14



Those who desire to be a different person tomorrow must begin change today.