Still Thankful For This… By Lisa Burkhardt Worley

I always wonder what would have happened if I had not been introduced to Jesus?

Would I have made different choices? Probably.

Would the hole in my heart due to fatherlessness have remained? Yes.

Would I be involved in ministry today? No.

If you are a Christian, have you ever thought what might have happened to you had you not been introduced to Jesus? I don’t know about you, but the thought scares me.

However, one thing I’ve learned, post-salvation, is that we need to be thankful for the journey and avoid longing for the past. The Israelites yearned to return to Egypt where they were enslaved before God mercifully led them out. They weren’t appreciative for what their Maker had done for them ten plagues later and after a miraculous parting of the Red Sea, so he got angry about their lack of appreciation. In Ezekiel 23, the Lord referred to this lust for Egypt as adultery. Strong words.

So what is your Egypt? What aspect of your past life do you occasionally long for?

A former job?

An old beau?

The town where you used to live?

We need to stop looking back and be thankful for where God has us right now. He has brought us to where we are today with a purpose in mind. We have to trust Him in the midst of it, whether we think life is good or we are certain it is bad. Yes, I am still thankful for salvation but I am also thankful for how God is at work in me today, many decades later.

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).