We have little sympathy for the psychology expressed in the various “Back To” movements among Christians today. Our direction is not back but forward. Few acts are as futile as sitting down and singing “Backward, turn backward, O Time, in thy flight.” We cannot turn the clock back. We cannot bring back better days. And it is not necessary or desirable that we should. If by means of some fantastic “time machine” one of us were permitted to go backward and visit some favorite period of the past, he would in all probability find the experience extremely disappointing. He would find himself a kind of anachronism, wholly out of place and thoroughly unhappy. To each one it is given to occupy his spot in history. He, like David, must do the will of God by serving his generation. It is in his own day that he must meet God in satisfying encounter. It is in his today, not in some pensive yesterday, that he must explore the riches of divine grace, do his allotted work, and win his crown. Psychologists attribute certain abnormal mental conditions to an unconscious desire to escape the responsibilities of adult life by returning to the quiet and security of the prenatal state. Our habit of trying to recapture the spiritual glow of some better time by going backward creates a suspicion that we have lost the will to fight and are retiring to a safer spot behind the lines, where we can sit down in peace to dream of armies defeated and battles won.
Verse
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Thought
Today is an opportunity to know God and to serve Him. We no longer have yesterday and may have no tomorrows. Today is uniquely God-given.
Prayer
My tendency, Lord, is to look back or forward. In doing so, I often miss the strategic value of today. Thank You for this day.