June 22: A New Thing

You’ve spent months looking backward. Now God invites you to look ahead.

God says through Isaiah: don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs forth now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

That might seem strange in the middle of recovery. Steps Four and Five were all about remembering. You wrote down your past in detail. You told another person about it.

But there’s a difference between looking at the past honestly and living in it. Steps Four and Five were about honest looking. Now that’s done. Step Six begins to turn you forward.

Some people get stuck rehearsing the past. Replaying old failures. Going over the inventory again and again. Feeling the shame fresh each time. That isn’t what God asks. You’ve looked at it. You’ve confessed it. Now He says: watch what I’m going to do.

A way in the wilderness. Rivers in the desert. These are pictures of the impossible. Things that can’t happen naturally. God specializes in those.

Your defects might feel permanent. Your patterns might feel like they’ll never change. That’s wilderness thinking. God says He can make a road right through it.

It helps to start imagining what that new thing might look like. Not in grand terms. Just small. What would a day look like without the old fear running it? What would your marriage look like with more patience? What would your work look like with more honesty?

Don’t you know it? God asks. It’s already springing up. Look for it.

This doesn’t mean pretending the past didn’t happen. Amends still lie ahead, and you’ll look back again then. But you don’t have to live in it. God has already started something new, and it’s worth paying attention to.

One thing today

Write a short description of one ordinary day, a year from now, with one defect gone. Make it specific. Then pray: Lord, do this new thing.

A prayer

God, I’ve been looking backward so long. Thank You that You’re doing something new. Make a way where I can’t see one. Help me look ahead with hope. Amen.

Step Six turns you forward: Step Six.

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