I got up this morning and was thinking about my next move. Things have happened in my past which have wounded me greatly and it still affects me today. If I am totally honest the situation still persists and sometimes it seems like a daily struggle to keep afloat. Some of you might have had similar situations, where things of yesteryear are still persisting in your life today or new challenges are constantly on the horizon wanting to make you retreat.

Be it something new or long standing as in my case, hurdles still need to be overcome. After a while these obstacles start to weigh us down and waving the white flag seems to be our only option for escape. Anyone else besides me feel like escaping today? In the moment raising the white flag sounds good, it feels good and even looks good. But when our backs are against the wall and the deck is stacked against us, the choice of our next move is paramount in positioning us for success or failure!

You see, the things that we face NOW consumes us so much we don’t clearly see the possibilities/opportunities that will be coming around the corner. Instead of wanting to turn the corner by applying the right amount of effort, we opt to concentrate on our crisis. We focus on our NOW instead of our NEXT.

Now I am not purporting to be a guru of applying this concept, God knows I need help to face my own portion of challenges. But I am trying to encourage myself as well as others as to what God is placing in my heart. If you want to use an example to pattern, then I would like to showcase King David when he returned from battle to Ziklag ( 1 Samuel 30:)

To summarize the story, David and his men came back to Ziklag and found the city burnt, and their wives and children taken away captive along with their possessions. The situation was so grim that the men were sore grieved and wanted to stone David to death. This is a good example of the NOW weighting us down to the point of breaking us into pieces. In such moments, there seems to be no friend nor family who understand what you are going through nor can help. It is only you and God in this battle of the now.

As in David’s case, he enquired from the Lord and the Lord gave him an answer to go and attack the men who took their wives and family. He got an answer from God and obeyed and they were able to reclaim their family and possessions. David did not allow this now to dictate his next!. If he was consumed about his now, he wouldn’t have gotten the strength to rise up and claim his next, and it is the same for all of us.

I am asking you, as well ask I am asking me, to take our eyes off our nows. Let’s do like King David and learn to go before God and inquire about our NEXT no matter the situation that we are faced with. All Gods thoughts towards us are good, thoughts to prosper us and give us a good end. Just as David’s test was turned into a testimony, all of ours can be the same, if we only learn to look forward instead of backward or on our present.

In life, our NOW does not matter as much as our NEXT. Things happen in an instant (the now) as in David’s case, or sometimes we might see small signs along the way, but this is life! The key is, now that God has willed it to be part of your journey, what are you going to do NEXT. Our next dictates the success of our future and not our nows. Don’t get too caught up in the NOW, that you miss your NEXT!

Your brother in the Lord,

Dane A. Miller

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