What Happens Next?

Peter was hiding while Jesus was paying for my sin (and Peter’s) on the cross.

He accepted the invitation of Jesus to stand again in hope and in purpose, though. When I feel that my failures and sins have been too much, when my fears and doubts make me give up, I cannot stay in those defeated places. I don’t have to. I am invited back to stand.

No matter what is going on in my life – confusion, loss, fear, doubt, pride, – whatever the failure or danger is that may be currently destroying my life or my stuff, how I respond and how I move forward is more important that how serious the danger or level of destruction may be.

Even if what is happening is the greatest success or victory I have ever experienced, how I respond and how I move forward is more important than the gain of the win.

“What just happened is never as important as what happens next.”

That is true no matter how great or how terrible the event was. If it is the worst thing ever, and I don’t learn from it and move forward from it, I will likely see it again. If it is the best thing ever, and I don’t build on it and move forward from it, it is likely to become an ebenezer monument in the desert, where I camp out and sing Kumbaya and pray for a revival of the glory.

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you also. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
(Philippians 3:12-16 HCSB ©®)