Devotions
Starting over
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? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV)
I remember many of my math lessons from high school. I majored in Math and Physics, so there were a lot of them; more than half of all our subjects were math and physics. Every day it was equations and more equations. The teacher would put an exercise on the blackboard and call a student to resolve it. Difficult integrals required many lines and steps until you reach the final answer. If the student missed one step in the process, no matter how hard they racked their brains, they would not find the answer. At some point, when the student would become stuck without any way of going forward, the teacher would then come and delete everything and say, “start over; this is flawed; it is leading nowhere.” So, we would start over and over again until the answer was found. Sometimes it was easy to find where the process deviated; other times, it was too hard that the best option was to start from scratch.
Life is a series of equations, some as difficult as integrals and others as simple as the first-degree equation. Sometimes life’s issues are simple to resolve; they are straightforward as a first-degree equation. But it is so hard to figure out the next step in other situations. No matter how hard you try, pray, or seek advice, there is no moving forward in the same conditions. You must start over. It may be a relationship already malfunctioning, but you are still desperately clinging to it. Perhaps it is a career that is not taking you anywhere or a business that has become stagnant. No matter the efforts, things are not working. You are unsure where things went wrong; it is a difficult equation. It is time to let God create something new. He will show you how to come out of the wilderness if you allow him. But the only way God can create something new for you is to let go of the past. Do not remember the former things, do not consider them. But can we really forget the past? No, because we are the result of our past. But we let the past stay in the past. It should not travel into our future.
Allow God to delete the blackboard of your life and write anew. Do not remember the past or consider it: do not give what happened in the past the authority and power to decide how you will live. Don’t let the past hurts, betrayals, failures, or successes hinder your progress. Past success can also be a hindrance. Keeping your eyes on your small victories of the past will make you inefficient in planning for future success because what made you succeed in the past might not work today. Things change, situations evolve, and you need to evolve along. God’s philosophy is always looking forward. He gives the word, accomplishes it, gives another one and accomplishes it. He said, “Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell the future before it happens” (Isaiah 42:9 NLT). If your next step with God is continuing where you are now, it is well and good. But if not, you may need to start over with new values and a new mindset. In the technical language, it is called reset. It may be as simple as resetting one parameter or as difficult as executing a complete system overhaul. Whether you need to readjust your life a bit or start over, you will not be alone. God is standing with you all the way to the finish line.
Posted : Dec 15, 2025