What if?

We all do it. Those of us who are prone to make more mistakes than a reasonable person's allowance tend to 'what if' more than most. Due to my my hightened gift of hindsight I indulge frequently in "what if" moments with the adjoining words, "what if I had only..." These whatiferisms are nearly always in a regretful, reflective, nostalgic tone. But what if we looked forward rather than back? What if we dared to dream more than we regretted? What if we took steps to go where we could go rather than pouting about where we can't? What if?

Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18

Rather than, "What if I had only..." and regretting that I cannot change the past, what if I embraced this amazing gift that God has given each one of us: and change our future? None of us has the power to change the our past, but we each have the power to change our future!

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.
Isaiah 43:18-19

Rather than, "What if I had only done it this way?", I began to look forward and start asking different question: "What if I will take the necessary steps to achieve this dream?" "What if I will do what has to be done to ensure that I'm no longer haunted by the past?" "What if I will pray bigger, bolder, more outrageously glorious prayers?" (Eph. 3:20 ¶ "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us")Then how different might my future look compared with my past?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Second Corinthians 5:17

What if I will refuse to accept that my past necessarily has to be the only thing that defines my future? What if we as a church began to pray together as if we really believed the hope that Ephesians 3:20 presents to us - that our God is able to do far more abundantly than anything we could ask for, think or imagine? What if?

¶ And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
Revelation 21:5 

Ps. Andrew