New Every Morning

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23) Every once in awhile, I’ll run into people I knew years ago. We’ll be talking and they’ll say, "Remember the old days? Those were good days, weren’t they?"

"Yeah, those were great days. So anyway, where are you going to church now?"

Sometimes they’ll say they aren’t going to church anywhere. In effect, they are still living off the good old days. But they need to get current. That was then, and this is now.

For some people, it’s all about what God did thirty years ago or twenty years ago. But I’m more interested in what God is doing today. And I want to see what He will do tomorrow. The past is interesting to me only to the extent that I can learn from it. I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes that I’ve made there. I can also remember some great things that God did, and I pray that He will do them again.

There is a place for remembering, but let’s not be crippled by past victories that can hinder us from doing what God wants us to do today. The Bible says that God’s mercies "are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23).

That is why Paul could say, "Forgetting those things which are behind . . ." (Philippians 3:13). If anyone could have rested on his laurels, it was Paul. He had a remarkable pedigree. And if anyone could have been crippled by his past, it was Paul. Before Paul became the great apostle, he was the notorious Saul of Tarsus, the Christian killer. But he wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted by past victories or to be crippled by past sins, and neither should we.

God wants to do a fresh work in our lives today. And He wants to do another one tomorrow.