Looking Back/Looking Forward

by Rocky Fleming

Day 3: Eyes Begin to Open

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! (1 Corinthians 13:12 MSG)

What a great verse.  Don’t you love God’s word?  Every time I look deeply into the truths found there, I hear God’s voice, and it is so encouraging to me.  Visualize the words above that the Apostle Paul wrote.  Can you connect with how we can see something or someone in a distance and recognize who it is, even if they are not close enough to be clearly identified in detail?  We see certain characteristics in their walk, their posture, and their demeanor.  The way they hold their head or the way they focus intently on their path or how they look all about to capture sight and sounds.  These are individual characteristics that are unique to a person.  They are God-created idiosyncrasies that He lovingly created.  God doesn’t change these things in a man or woman when He transforms us into Christ-likeness and into the vision He has in mind.  He simply builds a better foundation under us so that we can become the vision of that man or woman we see dimly ahead.  Watch His work to get you to this person.

As we look back at the God-encounters in our life and connect the dots with those things removed and replaced, we begin to see something of a person who looks very familiar to us ahead in our future.  What are you seeing in your future?  See any person a lot like you but drastically different?  Now don’t be afraid of what that looks like right now.  There are many things that would scare you to think you may be asked to do for God one day.  I remember when He gave me the vision of the man I would one day become as a writer, as a minister, and several other things that simply didn’t make sense to me at the time.  There was nothing about me that would indicate that my future would include these things.  It was bizarre to even be thinking of those things.  But I now see that God gave me a glimpse into my future, just like Paul mentioned.  I saw a figure in a fog.  I recognized it as a semblance of myself.  But that was about it.  I was thirty-nine years old at the time and a lot had to be done to re-create this man in me.  Therefore God began to rebuild my foundation for this man to emerge.

Little by little the new person in you will come to view, as well.  He will be chiseled like granite and refined like gold in a smelt.  This is the person who has been prepared by God for the future He has in store for you.  The identity change will begin with your view of God and understanding better God’s view of you.  This person in you will be carefully formed by God to play a noble part.  This person will be ready for what lies ahead.  This is your future, if you will allow your King to take you there.  It will not come easy.  But you will be prepared.

When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part,
When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man
That all the world should be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways:
How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects;
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him into shapes and forms of clay
Which only God can understand,
While man’s tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands;
Yet God bends but never breaks when man’s good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with mighty power infuses him,
With every act induces him to try His splendor out,
God knows what He’s about.

Author Unknown

God knows what He is doing, for He knows, He cares, He is willing, and He is able.  Trust Him.