Matthew 9:14-17 - Capturing the Future

As I am winding down my coursework for an MBA, I find myself understanding the need people have to increase their knowledge.  I speak from experience.  I had the awesome opportunity to pastor a small church in Georgia when I was 26 years old.  I will be honest that I really thought I knew what to do and at the same time I knew I did not know enough.  I tried conferences and training to help bolster areas in which I fell short.  But the end result was that though the church was fiscally strong and though it had grown somewhat, I was failing as a pastor.

Only recently have I began to realize how much more confidence I have in me than I did in my late twenties.  I credit some of it to spending more time as an associate minister and in educational pursuits.  But the greatest credit to goes to having a future and a desire to realize it.  For me, my future is in heaven and what I do here on earth in order to keep my focus on it.  My future comes from God who designed it for me, and I have learned to fully embrace it.

Whether you accept Jesus as Savior or not, our future comes from learning how to accept a new way of life.  Want to life a debt-free life?  Learn how to live without debt and increase your wealth to accommodate this lifestyle.  Want to be a great husband or wife?  Learn from those who have been married 50 or more years.  Want to be a great parent?  Learn from parents whose kids are grown and living successful lives.  Want to be a business leader?  Go to the source and learn from their mistakes and successes.

Regardless of what we would like to become, accepting a new lifestyle means we have to change.  Our new way of life will not fit with our old ways.  Our old ways can hold us back from achieving our future.  Hanging on to the old things in our life can be unhealthy if those things are the habits or ideals that brought us to the brink of our troubles.  The old ways can become the new ways if we do not learn how to release them and embrace the new ways.

Just like old wine skins.  Old wine skins have been stretched to the threshold of their natural properties.  Put new wine in an old skin and the wine ferments and breathes in a way that destroys the skin.  New wine needs a new skin.  A new lifestyle means living a new life.  My life changed when I learned to stop fitting Jesus into my life and embrace the life He had created for me.  I can celebrate and enjoy the new life because I have embraced the future He promises.  I haven't looked back since.

• What do you refuse to give up that may be holding you back from a better future?
• Have you ever fully examined the difference Jesus can make in your life?
• What are you doing to help change your future?  Are you embracing it and working towards it?