IS YOUR LIFE SHAPED BY YOUR VISION OR YOUR MEMORY ? – Do you replay or do you preplay ?

« For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. » Jeremiah 29.11. This verse clearly shows that God has a purpose and good plans for each of us, just like a loving father has good plans and many blessings in mind for his beloved children.

However, our way of thinking is sometimes contrary to God’s way of thinking. According to this verse, God is thinking about good things for our future, but many times we are not.

We spend too much time dwelling on the past, on negative thoughts, on things that have gone wrong in our lives : hurts, past failures and defeats, sicknesses, financial issues, guilt and condemnation.

(It is sometimes beneficial to look back at the past and learn from negative circumstances, and we can also remember happy times and praise God for everything He has done for us. But what I am majoring on today is negative thinking about the past.)

We have sovereign control about what goes on in our mind. We can either replay our past failures or fears, or preplay our coming victories. We can replay all the things that have gone wrong in our life and dwell there paralyzed, or we can move forward to the future God has for us.

We have to be disciplined in our thought life. Our mind can go wherever we let it go but we can rein it in. Philippians 4.8 tells us : Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. This is not a suggestion but a command.

If you want to take control of your mind, go through that verse over and over, and then evaluate how you feed your mind.

I say it again : you are in sovereign control of your mind, of what you allow in and what you meditate upon, and those thoughts are shaping your future.

We can picture a future that is better than our past. We all go through seasons in life, and we probably won’t be able to experience anymore some of them, like raising children and enjoying their presence, or living with loved ones, or working in another country… but we should look forward to the seasons that are coming and that are going to be good in a different way. God is not through blessing you.

Anticipate the favor of God in your life, blessings, unexpected experiences and good things. It is your sovereign choice to think on those things.

Wake up every day thinking : I wonder what good things will happen to me today.

You alone get to chose your attitude. Circumstances can influence you and tempt you to have a negative attitude, but you don’t have to go there. And the attitude you are going to chose will depend on what you think :  am I preplaying my future, with blessings from my loving Father, or am I replaying my past negative experiences and problems,

And here is the thing : if God has a purpose for my life, I don’t want to miss it. I want to know what it is and I have probably missed some of it on the way, as we all have. I am going to look at the future, because the more time I spend in the past, the more I lose something from the future. And I want all that God has for me with the years of my life that are left.

Is your life being shaped by your memories or by your vision ? Is your vision in line with God’s vision ?  

You don’t have to live a life of misery or mediocrity, you can declare right now God’s promises on your life. You can choose how to react to the stimula around you, either to be manipulated by the circumstances of the world or to stand on God’s Word for you.  Are you gonna replay or preplay ?