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JULY 2024
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God Is Right Now
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The Reality of History...
As Western culture has re-evaluated its relationship with history over the past couple years, a common refrain has been, “History is written by the victors.”
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The point of the phrase is that it’s easy to lose the story of the people who “lost” in the progress of history because they are either dead or their self-expression is suppressed by those who “won.” Therefore, we have been coming to grips with the reality that history is not as clean cut as we might have learned in 5th grade history class.
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....And Our Future
Our ideas of the future are similar. We tend to have formulated a plotline for the rest of our life at any given time…
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... I’ll live here
... I’ll be married
... I won’t be married
... I’ll have kids
... I’ll work this job, etc.
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But the future is even more dubious than the past. There are thousands of factors that affect the outcome of your life that are completely outside of your control. And yet, how quickly we become anxious or worried about the future that will almost certainly not happen the same way we imagine it!
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The Way God Wants Us to Know Him
I think Christians sometimes do the same thing with God. We tend to think about God on the basis of our past or our future.
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“God must be blessing/cursing me because I was good/bad in the past.”
“God, please bless me with (fill in the blank) in the future.”
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And don’t get me wrong, our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He “declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” (Is. 46:10) But my concern is that we forget that the way God wants us to know him is in the present.
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Do you remember Elijah’s lament to God in 1 Kings 19?
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Elijah complains about his past… “I have been very zealous for you, God! And everyone has rejected you!” And then he complains about his future… “They are going to kill me now!”
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In the present. He says, “Stand over there, Elijah. I’m going to pass by you.” He basically ignores Elijah’s worries about the past or the future until the very end of the text! He just comforts him by saying, “I am here right now.”
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God reoriented Elijah. “Elijah, what’s more important than the past or the future is the fact that I am with you right now.”
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Even though we don’t want to admit it to ourselves, that’s what we want. I have two little daughters and sometimes they call me into their room in the middle of the night because they’re scared. At that point, they don’t need a logical argument about how the dark cannot hurt them or about how the sun will come up soon or how there has never been anything bad that has happened in their room in the middle of the night in the past.
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They just need their daddy to be with them.
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The past is a story we struggle to make sense of, the future is a made-up story we tell ourselves. God is here right now. That’s what our soul craves; that’s what God is.
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And that means that you can dispense with the stories you tell yourself about your past.
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No matter how or what you struggled with…it’s paid for at the cross. It is finished. And you can stop worrying about the story you expect to play out in the future. It’s not your story to write.
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But you do have right now, and a God who loves you, approves of you, desires to be with you, walks with you, speaks to you right now.
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You’re right here, right now.
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And God is right here too.
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“So long as it is ‘Today,’ be sure to hear his voice.” (paraphrase of Hebrew 4:6-7)
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EDITOR'S NOTE:
A good number of you who are reading this are new subscribers to our newsletter from the Youth Rally. We're glad you're here!
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FEATURED RESOURCE
The First 40 Days
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Porn use and addiction is difficult to escape. You need to Reject Satan’s lies, Resist future temptations, and Recover from the wreckage porn causes. Then, at some point, you can rejoice in God’s design for sex.
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The First 40 Days is a collection of devotions designed to help you or someone you care for do just that.
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PRAYER:
"I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
(Lamentations 3:19-24)
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Check out our social media for more gospel encouragement.
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