It’s utterly tragic to see people who are brimming with potential being held back by the shackles, the regrets, the stories of their past because they’re at huge risk of wasting their lives – in fact, many do.

I wonder what life-limiting, soul-destroying stories your past is whispering in your ear over and over again. For some, the harsh realities of life have taught them that they’re simply not good enough. For others, past failures haunt them.

It’s painful even to admit that the past has such a death grip on our lives that we can’t conceive of a future set free from its clutches.

If any of that rings true, I have some powerful, life-changing good news for you today. It comes from God Himself, as He spoke to His people Israel, at a hopeless, apparently futureless time in their history:

Isaiah 43:18-21 So don’t remember what happened in earlier times. Don’t think about what happened a long time ago, because I am doing something new! Now you will grow like a new plant. Surely you know this is true. I will even make a road in the desert, and rivers will flow through that dry land. The wild animals will thank me. The large animals and birds will honour me when I put water in the desert and make rivers flow through that dry land. I will do this to give water to my chosen people. I made them, and they will sing songs of praise to me.

No, you can’t change the past. But God yearns to change your future! He’s calling you not to live in yesterday’s failures, but to step forward into what He’s about to do.

So don’t remember what happened in earlier times. Don’t think about what happened a long time ago, because He is doing something new!

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.