ONE THING

During this week I have been preparing for next week’s prayer and fasting week and I have had a scripture rolling around in my head that I wasn’t really sure what to do with. The verse is in Isaiah 43:18-19. It reads, “¹⁸ "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

There is a lot in this verse – let’s break it down. The rest of the chapter before these verses is the Lord telling the children of Israel who He is and how much He cares for them. God follows this declaration of who He is with this incredible statement – Forget the former things. In other words, what has happened in the past is in the past, it is time to leave it, move on and forget it.

What a powerful verse that is, and yet how incredibly difficult it is to achieve too. How many of us live with our minds on things that have happened to us in the past? How many of us ‘dwell’ on things that have happened to us in the past? How many of us hold on to our past hurts and fears like they are our favorite teddy bear – no-one can pry our fingers off of them? How many of us need to hear these words from the LORD? I believe that as we enter this season of fasting we need to hear these words – FORGET THE FORMER THINGS, DO NOT DWELL ON THE PAST.

As we begin our fast I want to challenge myself and all of us to forget the things that have happened to us in the past. I know that many of us have been hurt by the church, and by leaders and people in the church. I have walked on both sides of that line in my past – I have been hurt, and to my shame I have caused hurt. If you know of a situation where you have caused hurt or pain to a brother or sister then please take time to repent and seek forgiveness. If you are holding on to hurts from the past that have been inflicted on you, then I want to encourage you to take a step and LET THOSE HURTS GO. This does not excuse hurts from the past, but it releases us to move forward. We hold on to our pain and it not only stifles our walk with God but it also cripples our relationship with anyone we perceive to have hurt us in the past.

In this verse in Isaiah God says “FORGET THE FORMER THINGS”. The greatest news in this comes in verse 19. The reason we need to forget the former things is because God says this, “See, I am doing a new thing!” God wants to do a new thing in you and through you. God wants to do a new thing at Mt Oak. If you quickly mentally asked “why ?” , or internally said, “No He doesn’t” then I want you to seriously consider if you have forgotten the former things. This verse doesn’t command us to forget the bad former things, it commands us to forget all the former things, good and bad.

I am doing a new thing! Those must be among the most exciting words in the bible – a creator God, the Almighty declares “I am doing a new thing!” I believe that as we forget the former things and ask God to show us the “new thing” He is doing then we will be amazed at where the Lord wants to lead us personally and lead us collectively as Mt Oak.

What is the NEW THING you would like to see God do in your life? What is the NEW THING you would like to see God do in Mt Oak? In the New Testament, Jesus told a story of a rich young ruler – in Luke 18: 18-29 – and in this story the young man asks what he needs to do to get into heaven, especially since he had kept the law from a young age. Jesus answers him with these words, “You still lack one thing.” Jesus then goes on to highlight the area of the young man’s life where he had not let go – where he had not forgotten the things that were behind. The young man was rich, he had everything he needed, and he knew it. Jesus tells him that the ONE THING he lacks is complete trust on the Lord – he trusted in his stuff.

What is the ONE THING that Jesus would tell me if I were in that situation. I doubt it would be wealth, but I am sure there is ONE THING. What ONE THING would Jesus say that you lack? What ONE THING would Jesus say you are holding on to from the past? What ONE THING do you need to “FORGET” and move on from?

This week, maybe we need to just listen for ONE THING. Maybe we need to FORGET SOME FORMER THINGS.

Lord, show me the ONE THING that I lack, and the FORMER THINGS that I need to FORGET.

Maybe you are in a place where you do not lack ONE THING, but you need to hold on to ONE THING. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, “¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But ONE THING I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The apostle Paul takes these two ideas of forgetting what is behind and holding on to ONE THING. He sets the example for us to stop living in the past, stop comparing the present with the past, stop comparing people in our lives today with people who used to be in our lives, stop living in times gone by and forgetting what happened then, forgetting the good things and the bad things for ONE reason. The reason we forget the former things is so that we can fix our eyes on the GOAL – we can fix our eyes on the NEW THING the Lord is doing, we can focus everything within us to strain towards the GOAL to win the prize.

As we enter this week of fasting, let’s take this exhortation seriously.

Forget the things from the past

Desire the NEW THING God wants to do

Focus your life towards the GOAL to win the prize.

Let God be your ONE THING.