Remember! Don't Retreat.

You will eventually reach a point in your journey where you'll look back, see how far you've come, and refuse to go back.

Looking back should be your motivation to keep pressing forward,  but that won't happen unless and until you change your mind about where you've been and where you're going.  When where you're going becomes more important than who/what isn't with you anymore, you realize that God removed those things/people for a reason. 

When you realize that trusting God is not as hard as we make it, you'll look back at where you were, and instead of feeling unworthy,  or embarrassed and ashamed, you'll understand that He had a plan all along and it was YOU who was in the way of it being fulfilled. 

I read the other day that "if the only time you seek God is when you're in trouble,  your trouble will last always because He desires that we seek Him." Today I realized the very point that my spiritual life began to get stronger than it has ever been. When I stopped praying for God to fix my situation and started asking Him to fix ME.

I spent so much time getting myself into trouble, making decisions based on what other people thought or wanted.  Setting my heart and hopes on temporary things and not eternal things.  And when it came down to the wire and things got out of my control, THEN I wanted to pray  for a way out. "Lord please fix this!" not even "Lord, I'm sorry I'm such a mess." but "Lord please get me out of this mess and I'll never do it again. " until the next time.

I literally set myself up to repeat that same cycle,  because even when I was sitting in church every Sunday,  singing,  and worshipping, all I was really doing was keeping myself covered. I wasn't really doing the work.  I was just in the building so no one could say that I wasn't. "God knows my heart" became my go to excuse for my less than savory behavior.  It was my way out of feeling convicted for the things I was thinking,  saying and doing. 

God is SO much better than that and it wasn't until I sincerely asked Him to fix me, and give me the courage to let Him have control that I realized nothing behind me is worth losing what God is leading me to.

So, I can LOOK BACK and be reminded what God has already done but by His grace and His power I will never GO BACK.