I love to read. I can get lost in a book for hours at a time. And there are some books I have read dozens of time just to escape my own reality for a while. It is difficult for me to close a book and not imagine the next phase of the character's life; it makes it difficult to pick up a new book to read.
Life is our very own book. However, in life, it doesn't always end 'happily ever after'. We have chapters in our life that we return to visit, unable to move forward to the next chapter God has prepared for us. Sometimes these chapters are full of heartache and tears. Some are fill with bad choices and regrets. The devil likes nothing better than to keep reminding us of these chapters, so we keep revisiting pages that already have been written unable to begin writing the next. The regrets of the past and bitterness of hurts keep us bound to what has been.
Just as a novel must keep moving forward toward an end, we, too, have to keep moving forward. We cannot keep re-reading the past chapters and only wonder how the book will end. We must close the chapter and begin a new one. We must break free of the guilt and regrets the devil keeps us bound in and trust in Christ to help us write a new beginning. We do not know the blessings we have to offer the world if we remain stuck in the past. We will not know the abundant life God has planned for us if we are too afraid to begin again. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declare the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11).
I ask every reader to pray for each other this week for encouragement, especially for me. There are chapters in all our lives we keep revisiting. Let us help each other to move forward and forgive ourselves. Through Christ, all things are possible … even an ending of 'they lived happily ever after.’