Focus: Beyond Past Glory (Pt.2)

Text: Jb.29:2

"Oh that I were as in months past."

"Oh that I were as in months past." But he wasn't. The whole time that Job was going through his ordeal, he kept looking behind his shoulders to see his glorious past. He was constantly reliving his past, not seeing his way out of his present darkness and misery. 

One thing that worried him most was a cloud of mystery hovering over him. He found himself in the worst of conditions, but couldn't understand why or how he found himself in it. His life was immersed in misery and enmeshed in mystery. His future looked blank and dark.

Dwelling in the past helps no one. No one moves forward with hope and confidence while looking back with regrets and hopelessness.

Paul Allen says, "In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it." Lessons of history help us forge a new future. Yesterday's failure puts seeds in your hands for a tomorrow's harvest of great success and glory. The seed in your hand is someone's harvest. Even in your present moment of pain, you can be a blessing to others. Your glory lies in serving others even in your pain or darkest moments. Arthur Ashe says that "true heroism is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." Also, understand that, according to Octavia E. Butler, "all that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you." Get involved in the business of touching and changing those around you.

There came a time when Job managed to look up and look ahead. He said, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come" (Jb.14:14). He took courage and cheered himself up. He said, "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase" (Jb.8:7). All the while Job was thinking and feeling like his life was over, little did he know that his life was about to change for the best. 

The Scripture says, "So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses" (Jb.42:12). Concerning children, we read, "He had also seven sons and three daughters… And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren" (Jb.42:13,15). Job recovered his past glory and much more. He miraculously bounced back from a huge fall and thrived on majestically.

Beyond past glory, there's a greater glory. Haggai declares, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts" (Hag.2:9). God won't let your glory become a past tense. Your past glory can never be greater than your future glory. Take the wise man's counsel and act on it. He says, "Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end" (Prov.19:20). 

Your story will not end like Amalek's. Balaam says, "Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever" (Num.24:20). Joshua Becker wrote, "The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don't." 

Stop hopelessly and helplessly looking back. By placing your faith in God and following a plan of action you can reinvent yourself and regain your past glory, and even rise above it. Beyond past glory is a greater one. Have faith in God and be confident that you will sail through, and not sink under the present circumstances.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter