Below are two short “Words of Thought” taken from one of my Daily Devotional Books.

OVERCOMING THE PAST

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 KJV

What man does not have events in his past he regrets? However, if a man is remembering past sins that God has Himself forgotten because of the forgiveness we find in Christ, those memories are at best wasteful and at worse destructive.

Many a man has labored for years without success to overcome memories of a sinful past. And needlessly so. Every man must acknowledge his past failures and then move on. In so doing, God is enabled to open a way through the past wilderness and bring forth rivers in that forsaken desert.

What events of your past still haunt you? Confess them, acknowledge God’s forgiveness, and then forevermore, let those memories become monuments to God’s mercy and grace.

Alexander Maclaren stated:

“Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past; it is possible to be sure of the future; it is possible to be diligent in the present.”

THE COMPLETE MAN

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Colossians 2:10 KJV

A man is incomplete without Christ, but when that man is born again and has become a new creation in Christ, he is reckoned by God as “complete in him.”

The full import of that truth may take years to fully appreciate. In fact, many Christian men wander through life for years still feeling incomplete. Recognizing the many benefits of Christ’s redemption will clearly continue for as long as a man lives and is worth a lifetime of pondering and appreciating. While many men may strive for a sense of completeness, from God’s point of view, a man is already complete when he is “in Christ.” What many men assume as a goal, God sees as a starting point.

J.C. Ryle stated:

“Let us understand, that all who have really fled for mercy to the Lord Jesus Christ are, as Paul assures the Colossians, complete in Him! In themselves they may be poor shortcoming sinners—but seeing they have laid hold on Christ, God looks upon them as complete—completely pardoned, completely righteous, completely pure—no jot or tittle of condemnation can be laid to their charge.”

May these “Words of Thought” be a blessing unto you.
Troy Chandler
Chaplain, Army of Trans-Mississippi