“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?”- Isaiah 43:18-19
Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been waiting for God to do a new thing for what seems like a while. Every day we pray with hope that the things we believe God will do in our lives will come to pass soon after we say ‘amen’. But of course, we are called to wait for His perfect timing for those things to come. The question is, what can we do while we wait? This may be a topic you’ve heard before in a podcast, book, or sermon and, you’re probably expecting me to give you some typical advice such as pray, meditate on God’s word, create a spiritual routine, and all that jazz; and although these are things I suggest you do as you wait, that’s not where I’m going with this. Read the first sentence again.
That is what I want you to do, to forget the former things and no longer consider what used to be. Aim to unlearn what has caused doubt and insecurity, break bad habits, and forget the things you identified with that don’t line up with what God says about you.
These aren’t easy tasks to fulfill, but we’ve been given the grace to drop the weight we’ve held onto in order to have open arms to receive the new thing that God is bringing our way. The ‘now’ God speaks of in the highlighted verse could literally be any given moment, but will you see it if you’re focused on what you’re holding onto? Throughout many seasons, God will challenge what we’ve come to know with what we need faith to believe, and what I’ve learned from these experiences is that God won’t perform until we show Him that we are willing and ready to choose the new thing. We don’t know what it comes with, and we don’t know what it’ll require of us, but we must have enough faith to forget the former to make room to know the new.
There are some things God doesn’t want us to walk into new seasons with, and He won’t enter us into them until we let go of what has become former or old as we’ve journeyed towards the new thing. Imagine if Jesus never left Nazareth. Imagine if Jesus never went from one place to the next. How many people wouldn’t have experienced or witnessed miracles?
Our willingness to move from what’s familiar to what requires faith allows God to move miraculously in our lives. Remember that He will do a new thing.
He will because He wants to. His word says it, so there’s no reason to doubt it, but as you wait for that to come through, as you pray, ask God what you need to forget and no longer consider and how to do that. Commit to dropping those things and prepare to receive what God has for you in this upcoming season. You may not know it now, but you soon will.
