Pastor Ephraim Musiba dedicated the sermons’ message to members of the Ocean who believe that they’re currently stuck in a rut or have remained stagnant for a considerable amount of time. The sermon’s message was also dedicated to people who are scared and unsure of what lies ahead of the road for them. Pastor Musiba delivered hope by stating that The Best Is Yet to Come.

To provide spiritual direction and guidance on this message. Pastor Musiba refers to the book of Isaiah ch 43:14-20:

“This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride…“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.See, I am doing a new thing! …The wild animals honor me,”

To provide greater historical context, at this point in Israel’s history, they were in a very dark period as they were slaves in Babylon, had been held captive for a long time, and had lost everything back home that they thought they would retain forever. The Israelites had all but lost faith in God and underestimated His power. In the midst of this dark period, God sent the prophet Isaiah to deliver a message of hope. Within this message, God reminds the Israelites of who He is, what He did in the past, and most surprisingly after sharing these messages of how He had delivered them before, God tells them to forget all that He had done before as they anticipate the new things that He would do. 

As it relates to our daily walks, if we’d like to grab a hold of the things that God has for us and to advance into the future, we must embody 3 principles. 

• Forget the past.

God instructed the Israelites to forget the past. He did this as He was aware of the acute dangers of dwelling in the past and how continued reliance on the past would prohibit them from effectively moving forward. Had the Israelites remained focused on how God had delivered them before or how life used to be, it would have been almost impossible to focus on the new works that He had in store for them.

Similarly, God also instructs us to forget the past if we are to fully embrace the glory days that are ahead. It is impossible to run a race set for you if your mind is stuck in the past.  If we continuously think about the past, it will be near impossible to embrace what is ahead.  This means that we must let go of past failures, disappointments, and victories too. While it’s important to learn from and be grateful for the past, moving forward requires a refreshed mindset devoid of past dwellings. 

• Live with Excited Anticipation

Our God is a God of new things. His mercies are new every morning. If we would like and expect God to do something new and wonderful in our lives, we need to anticipate it. God instructed the Israelites to anticipate new things from Him. In providing this instruction, God is explicitly stating that He’s about to do something much better than what He did in the past.

We are thus called on to anticipate the newness of God as His mercies are new every morning. He always wants us to advance forward.  Just like He instructed the Israelites to look forward and expect new things, God is also about to take us to new places and destinations God reminded the Israelites that He was a God of new things and had already begun working on their future As such they should not let their past or current situation define their future as they may end up missing out on what God is doing. In a similar vein, we must stop looking behind us and instead anticipate the future by living with excited anticipation.

• When God moves, He builds where It was previously not thought to be possible

God picks hard places to do great things and dry places to do fertile things. He specializes in doing the impossible. God builds in the most difficult places and that’s where He gets the most glory.  He has built new things through people and has performed miracles through people. People are God’s chosen vessels to do great things.

Similarly, God wants to do great things through the church and through His followers but we must be prepared to move where He instructs us to go.  Are you ready to heed His call? Are you willing to partner with God to do new things? The past was great but what’s ahead is greater.

All in all, if we are to embrace the glory that God has in store for us, we need to stop dwelling in the past as there is so much more on the horizon. What God is about to do is far better than what He did before. So much lies ahead. Don’t be discouraged by bumps on the road or detours. Instead, we should look to the future with hope. God has great things in store but we must be willing to partner with Him in order for this to happen.