I know where I’m going…

One of my favorite songs when I was young was “Here I go Again” by Whitesnake.  I remember in the late 90’s when I would drive to my Granny’s house I cranked that song as loud as my little Firebird would play it, with the windows down, driving down the long country roads.  I don’t even know why I related to that song so much.  I just loved singing it at the top of my lungs.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with that song playing in my mind, the chorus “I don’t know where I’m going but I sure know where I’ve been.. Here I go again on my own”…  and I heard the Lord speak to me – it’s the opposite.. You don’t know where you’ve been.  But you do KNOW where you’re going.  and you are NOT going alone.

Ephesians 1:4 says “According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”  

In the book of Jeremiah the Lord said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before and set you apart.”

This world puts so much weight on our shoulders in the walk we are to walk as believers in Christ.  We have guilt placed on our hearts if we miss a church service, if we don’t attend small groups or bible study classes, if we don’t give enough money as offerings, and the list goes on and on.  Sometimes it seems that this very way of things is what breeds guilt and doubt inside of us.  We wonder if we’re good enough to be made acceptable to God.  We wonder if we’re doing enough on the outside to be saved on the inside.  And I ask myself, Do we even know who we are?… So worried about what we have to do to be seen as righteous, (do our part) to become what the Lord would expect from us.  When he says HE has declared before we even came here that he’s the one that makes us accepted in the beloved.

I feel like the Lord is pointing out to me that “where we’ve been” isn’t what we think.  Looking at yesterday – all of our mistakes we’ve made in this lifetime isn’t the past he would have us be made aware of.  But the truth in who we really are lies within his knowing of us before we were even placed in the womb.  He called us and said, “I choose this one.. and I will make her blameless in Christ, not by her own strength, or ability or choices.  I choose her and I will finish what I ordained for her.”

Today I just feel like the focus that is placed on my heart is KNOWING where I’m going – not because I deserve anything and not because I can find my way into His good graces, but because HE SAYS I’m already there – already loved, already accepted, already pre-ordained to be grafted into the family of everlasting life by the acts of Jesus, not me.  I look to the cross when Jesus said, “It is finished.”  And, I ask the Lord to strengthen my faith that nothing can make me question his words, knowing that HE WILL and HE HAS completed everything that ever needed to be completed when He rose our Savior from the dead and appointed Him as the High Priest, who paid the ransom in full for my soul.  There is liberty in Jesus – nothing more to gain.. nothing more to do… just rest in His arms and thank him through the good days and the difficult days too… for saving me and giving me the hope and the promise in Him.

As the song says, “Hanging on the promises and the hopes of yesterday”..  Lord I ask you to renew our hope in Jesus everyday.  No matter the season or the troubles we face, help us to see where we’re going.  Father help us to keep walking – to keep moving forward by your strength and to KNOW that in surrendering our hearts to you through all things, our best days are yet to come… and they aren’t JUST a hope… they are TRUTH.

Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.
 – Matthew 11:29