Come on, now. We’ve all sat around a barroom or another and have heard these lamentations of our past.
“I could have been an Olympic swimmer…”
“I could have been a contender…”
“I could have been a great baseball player…”
And the list goes on ad nauseam. In truth, maybe, there are ALL kinds of things we could have been. Maybe and then again, Maybe not.
At any rate: we love to say these things and keep our focus on the past.
Yes, yes, of course. Because of our constant and persistent screw-ups of our youth, there are all kinds of accomplishments we could have performed, but failed due to well….our screw ups.
We’ve all been there and should be able to relate.
The attention here is on the past and as Christians our attention should NEVER be on the past, but on the present and the future.
Sure. WE screwed up big time in the past and for many of us, if not most of us, that is why we were brought to our knees before the Lord and converted into Christianity in the first place. We were such screw ups.
Now that we’ve said all of this so what?
The point here is not to speak of all the things we could have should have been, but to point to where we are going.
In other words, in what direction are we going now?
This means I don’t care where you were or what you could have been, what I care about is what you are and what you are going to become from here on after.
I believe it is the same with God.
God forgives our past if we repent and ask Him. His concern is we are at the moment and with God, He lays out plans for the rest of our life.
So then, forget all the things we could have been. Forget all the things that we’ve lost from our past. Focus on Jesus here and now and for the days ahead into tomorrow.
As a Christian our past is no longer important. Truthfully, the same can be said for anyone else as well. What we were has no bearing on who we are now.
Concentrate therefore not on the losing statements of yesterday, but on the hope and promise for tomorrow. As a new creature in Jesus, there was no tomorrow for all that sin was buried in the sea of forgetfulness. Our future belongs only to Him that matters. It belongs to God.
Hard Times Ministries 
Reminds me of a song by Josh Wilson, “That was then, this is now.”
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Yes, it is way to easy to get carried away with all the stuff we could have been and more often than not, at the moment we aren’t ever fit to be around at all, much less a role model.
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This is similar in one way; A little boy goes to his mother as says, “Mommy, it’s a good thing I wasn’t born in Germany.”
“Why is that, ” the mother says.
“Because I can’t speak a word of German.”
What this illustrates is that where and what we were born is not by accident, but that God has a purpose always for where we are. the secret is for us to determine what it is.
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Spot on.
Love this: “Concentrate therefore not on the losing statements of yesterday, but on the hope and promise for tomorrow. ”
Because of King Jesus, we are a people of hope.
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Absolutely. Well said and all so true about our Lord, Jesus.
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