Monday, April 13, 2015

Becoming Like a Frog

 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)

Sweet Frog is a popular frozen yogurt chain in the South and its owners are Christians.  The “Frog” in the name stands for “Fully Relying On God.”  And they did just that in starting their business at the beginning of the Great Recession in 2009.  

Fully relying on God means not getting locked in on our present circumstances, good or bad, and not focusing in on the what if’s or getting stuck in the what were’s of the past.  As our pastor said yesterday, frogs only go forward, never backward.

Jesus says to us “Follow me.”  And, as it did for Peter, this means putting aside the past and trusting the Lord for the present and the future.  Your eyes are to be locked in on Him as He leads you.  And He is not looking back, but forward.  Nor is He content with settling down in one place and remaining there.  Rather, He continues to move forward and look forward.  

This is not typically our nature.  Rather, we can easily get stuck focusing on the past and constantly looking back with regret or longing, focusing on that which cannot be changed.  We regret choices we made or were made for us.  Or we long for the better days of old.  Either way, our gaze is backward, and our gait becomes halting because it is so hard to walk forward when we are looking back.  

Relying on God leads us to accept His grace for our past mistakes, to grant the same to those who hurt us, to trust Him to care for us in the present, and to be confident in His ability to lead us into the unknown days ahead.  Like a frog, we keep moving forward.  

Today, remember that fully relying on God means becoming like a frog—always moving forward.  To follow Jesus is to leave your attachments to the past behind.  He is leading from the front and that is where your focus is to be.  

© Jim Musser 2015

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