God chose you as the first fruits for salvation, through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth, to which he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. 2: 13-14

How about this quote?  “Your past is not God’s future for you.”   Many would argue that.  They say that so much of what they have suffered continues to visit them. They continue to get sick.  They continue to sustain disappointments.  They continue to get fooled by people.  They continue to face losses.  They continue to work with challenging financial parameters.  Life appears to be a cruel cycle.  

How am I to regard my life when painful things keep repeating themselves?  I must remember that things are often the same on the outside.  But on the inside?  I am constantly changing.  

Here’s an example.  When my mother died, I was thirty years old.  I did not have a solid connection to God.  I had no idea how to draw close to Him to weather the trauma of losing a mother.  I floundered, grew depressed and inconsolable, and my faith suffered for another decade.  

Much further down the road, my father died of cancer.  My relationship with God was more alive.  I was able to implement some spiritual skills to weather the long goodbye.

Everything was really tested, however, when our son ended his life.  But by then, scripture had driven my root system deeper into the person of Jesus.  I knew how to live in hope and trust God with unanswered questions.  Suicide was excruciating but it didn’t kill my faith.  

Three deaths.  Same external realities.  But each was met with a different internal world.

My past is not my future.  Nor is yours.  Our internal worlds can resemble eternity with Jesus.  Right now.  In Christ, God has enabled our souls to live in paradise.  

You walk with me and talk with me.  You tell me I am your own.  That changes today entirely no matter my affliction.  Amen