Friday Fight 116: Tense Time

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF116.

How often have we looked back at our past and thought, "I will NEVER go through that again." A statement like this is spoken with intentional authority, and we believe it. But what does communicating a message like this mean, and how can this impact our lives?

Tense Time:

This post is not the first time the Holy Spirit has used the curriculum taught in the classroom to help me understand a lesson. (FF 84 The Tension of Tenses). https://godsfirstresponders.com/friday-fight-1/friday-fight-84-the-tension-of-tenses But this application is entirely different.

As previously mentioned, teaching grammar allows me to understand sentence structure and the correlation between a time frame, where an action is emphasized, and how a statement is communicated. Let's unpack this from a spiritual perspective and what can happen when our thoughts shift between our past, present, and future lives and where that places our focus. In Philippians 3:13, Paul applies being spiritually focused to the analogy of someone running a marathon. A runner trying to win a race can't spend time turning around to look back while remaining focused on the path in front of him. Using this analogy, let's look at how Paul's writing applies to the lesson of focus in this post.

Imagine a relationship that was both physically and emotionally damaging. In the end, overcoming trauma like this requires prayer, God's healing, extending and accepting forgiveness, and therapy/counseling. Sometimes we are deceived into believing the passing of time will heal these painful wounds. Sadly, if we do not address past hurts, we become consumed with worry about their repetition, maneuvering our focus between our past and future lives, which is exhausting.

Suppose we take a small step forward in healing. We try to pray, focus on having fun, attend church a few times, and avoid thinking about the past. We focus solely on creating a hopeful future. Those we love and the joy of God's presence in the present is missed because our focus continues to be elsewhere. In trying to dictate future outcomes of happiness, stress can steal the fulfillment of what is happening now.

Let's apply a basic self-test: If we are driving down the road, noticing the beautiful hues of the sky and how the sunlight shimmers through the trees, this could be an indication we passed this basic present tense test. Now, let's be honest with ourselves, if we are always focusing on how great the sky used to look until a hurtful situation or person destroyed it, we could be focusing on the past. Or if we look at that sky and immediately begin manipulating areas of our life hoping for the remote possibility that this colorful sky will look brighter once time passes or memories fade, we may be focusing too much on our future. Our focus dictates how we communicate through verbal and nonverbal messages then indicates which part of our lives consumes our attention.

Stay with me! Now is the time to examine where we exert our physical and emotional energy, which can diminish our spiritual growth. Shifting between future worries and a hurtful past could mean not noticing a presently resolving situation from God. Allowing God to heal our past and leaving our future with Him brings recognition of the blessings right in front of us. Are we missing how God is working today because our focus is elsewhere? Learn from the past while allowing God to heal it. Pray for the future, but trusting God is already there. Focus on the blessing and joy of the present day and how God is moving through securing time in His presence. God will heal our past and cover our future while we enjoy the blessings of time with Him.

Photo Credit: Rylee Gragg

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