"…So now, LORD, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, ‘I, the LORD, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.’ And now, LORD, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt."

The LORD answered, "I will forgive them, as you have asked. But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth, none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me. They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it…"

Numbers 14:17-23

Avoid the trap of looking back like the Israelites did, always thinking that slavery was better than trusting and obeying their LORD to deliver them. Don’t look back unless it is to recall a lesson learned or to glory in what God has accomplished. For those whose lives are centered in Christ, the best days are always yet to come.

To live in the past is to miss today’s opportunities

and tomorrow’s blessings.

Our Daily Bread – February 25, 2002