Living in Yesterday

A couple of months ago, I spoke about the disadvantages of Living in Tomorrow where one is unable to live today because they are constantly worried about the future. But what about those who live in yesterday, or the past? Living in the past is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than living in tomorrow. 

We have all experienced loss, pain, shame, rejection and demotion in one form or the other. However, we must avoid constantly looking back and meditating on those experiences as they will prevent you from moving forward. For some, the success, joys and triumphs of yesterday can also keep them stagnant as they become so engrossed in the joys of yesterday that they put no effort into reproducing those triumphs today. They don’t bother to achieve anything else or to grow because at one stage in their life they had it all.

In this post however, we will be focusing on how living in the loss, pain and rejection of yesterday can impact your today. What can we learn from scripture? The lame man described in John 5:1-9 is a perfect example of a man who lived in the past to the point where he could not respond to the opportunities that were presented to him. The passage reveals that this man had been lame for thirty-eight years and had been lying at the pool for a long time. He was waiting for an opportunity to get into the pool when the water is stirred up so he could be healed. Well, here we have the King of Kings, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, reaching out to him and asking if he wants to be healed. Instead of responding ‘Yes, please, tell me how I can be healed?’, he recalls what has been his story for many years. If you notice he didn’t really respond to the question. His response was more like ‘well, I can never get into the pool quick enough’. Almost as if he was saying ‘I want to be healed but I’ve just never been able to step into the pool, so I’ll just keep lying here’. This lame man allowed his experience in the past to define his response to an opportunity before him. His mind and heart were overshadowed with not only the painful experience of being lame for thirty-eight years, but with the hopeless hope of never being quick enough to step into the pool. If the lame man was more conscious of not allowing the disappointments of yesterday to discourage him from embracing his present opportunity, his response to Jesus would have been more hopeful. Nevertheless, Jesus was gracious and granted this man healing.

If you continuously meditate on the rejection and pain you experienced in the past, it will disarm you from making decisions that will help you move forward today. Click To Tweet

The only sad thing is that the painful experiences of not getting into the pool defined how he viewed each day. Being lame for that long is no easy situation. As people of God sometimes we go through horrible experiences. But do the disappointments and difficulties you experienced in the past define you today? One way to tell is how you respond to new opportunities and experiences that are presented to you. This lame man responded by elevating his negative experiences while lying lame at the pool. Be careful not to do the same when new opportunities, blessings, and help knock at your door. If you continuously meditate on the rejection and pain you experienced in the past it will disarm you from making decisions that will help you move forward today.

For instance, you may have been in a relationship heading towards marriage but for one reason or the other, things didn’t go as planned. Now, five years later you are afraid to go into another relationship because the fear and disappointment from your last relationship still lingers in your mind. The message for you today is that God is presenting fresh opportunities for you if only you’d stop looking back. There is a reason God tells the children of Israel in Isaiah 43:18-19 to forget the former things as He makes a promise to them. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”. Your vision for a new thing today or tomorrow will be blurred if you are still looking back at yesterday.  

For some, living in yesterday is represented by the failure experienced while trying something new. They never venture into anything new again because of that experience. Maybe the Lord laid something in your heart for you to do, you tried but experienced obstacles that discouraged you from taking further steps, so you let that dream die. Maybe the Lord has presented opportunities for you to serve Him with your talents, but just like the man in the parable of the talents, you hide it— however your motive is fear of failing because you failed yesterday. I hope you agree with me that this is no way to live a fruitful life. Adopt the attitude expressed in Philippians 3:13-14:

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Like Paul, press towards that which God is calling you to do today. Whether it’s applying for that job, engaging in a new ministry, saying yes to the godly man /woman interested in pursuing a relationship with you (after you have prayed and you are sure God wants you to step in), starting that new business and the list is endless. So, dear reader, are you living in yesterday? If you are, take your past failures, fears and rejections to God. Leave them at the altar and accept God’s blessings for you today. If you hold on to the pain of the past, your hands will be too full to accept the blessings of today.