The petition laid before the throne is one that wrestles mightily, crying out for grace to shift the gaze from what has been to what God now sets before you. There is a holy violence in this prayer, a pressing toward the mark, and it is well that the heart yearns for the new thing while still longing for the salvation of souls once entwined with your own. Yet mark this: the danger lies in letting the backward glance become a fixed stare that hinders the race set before you. The Apostle, by the Spirit, declared, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." He did not say the past was of no account, but that it must be relinquished as a weight if one would seize the prize. You have prayed for the prodigy, for those former bonds, this is right, for love desires their eternal good. But the energies of your soul cannot be divided between tending the graves of old mercies and plowing new ground for the Kingdom. The Lord who makes all things new calls you to behold, not the dust of yesteryear, but the budding of His present purpose.
Consider how easily the heart clings to what is familiar, even when it is mingled with sorrow. The Israelites looked back to Egypt when the wilderness grew sharp, forgetting the iron furnace and remembering only the fleshpots. So the soul may linger over past relationships or seasons, rehearsing prayers already answered or pains already sanctified, until the present duty is neglected. Your request for a clean heart and a restored joy is the very cry of one who has tasted that the Lord is good and now finds the palate dulled by too long a diet of remembrance. Let the joy of salvation be your strength, not the melancholy of what might have been. The new thing God declares, He will not show it to those who stand peering into the tomb of former days. Rise up, anoint your head, and wash your face; the Bridegroom has work for you among the living.
Do not mistake the tenderness of your prayers for the lost as a chain that binds you to inactivity. To pray is to commit them into the hands of Him who is mighty to save, and then to go about the business He assigns. The Lord opens doors that no man can shut, and He sets before you an open door for evangelism, fellowship, and the ordering of His house. Will you stand hesitating on the threshold because your heart casts a shadow back toward those who tread another path? The salvation of the Gentiles, the offering up of souls sanctified by the Holy Ghost, this is your priestly service now. Pour out your soul for the perishing who are within your reach, and trust the Good Shepherd to seek the sheep that have strayed beyond your present call.
There is a holy forgetfulness that is not callousness but the custody of the mind. When the Apostle prayed for Israel according to the flesh, his heart's desire and prayer to God was that they might be saved, yet he did not cease to preach to the Gentiles and to plant churches among them. Let your intercessions rise like incense, but then let your hands swing wide the sickle in the harvest field before you. The Lord who commands you to honor father and mother, to show piety at home, also commands you to set in order the things that are wanting and to meet every pressing need among the flock. These duties are not distractions from some higher spiritual life; they are the very path of obedience in which the new thing is discovered.
Beware the subtle snare of supposing that by perpetual rehearsal of the past you are performing a meritorious work. There is a false piety that wears the face of compassion but is in truth a refusal to trust God with what cannot be changed. Has He not said, "Behold, I make all things new"? Then let old things pass away, not by a violent severing of natural affection, but by a deliberate setting of the mind on things above. The new heart He creates within you will not cease to love, but it will love in proportion to His will, and its chief affection will be fixed upon Christ and His appearing.
Press on, then, into the strange and marvelous things He will show you in your own experience. Expect to find new desires, new motives, new victories in the inner man. The life of faith is a succession of fresh creations; every morning His mercies are new. Do not let the canker of worldly anxiety or the rust of regret eat into the joy of your present salvation. The temporal provisions, the quiet boarding, the nearness to family, the open doors, these are tokens that your Father knows what things you have need of. Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things shall be added in their measure. Run, not as uncertainly; fight, not as one who beats the air. You have asked for grace to shift focus; now steadfastly set your face toward Jerusalem, and let the dead bury their dead, while you go and preach the Kingdom of God. The Lord will perfect that which concerns you, both in the past and in the days to come, as you commit all, even the unsaved beloved, into His faithful hands.
Our Father in Heaven, Thank You for Your covenantal devotion to Your people, Hos 3:1-5, Jer 3:2-25. Your mercy is daily and Your great faithfulness an ever-present certainty in an ever-changing life and world, Lam 3:23. Firstly, our prayer and private devotion and study even need those mercies, the ability to care for ourselves, our teaching and those You have in a way put under our care requires Your Spirit's inspiration, 1 Tim 4:16. And while we still pray for former relationships' salvation and enrichment, Rom 10:1, Yet we ask mercy and grace to SHIFT OUR FOCUS to GRACE FOR NEW THINGS Isa 42:9, to TRANSITION to be on guard for ourselves and the flock of God You placed under our charge here, among us, Acts 20:28-31, and meet pressing (PRIORITIES) needs, Tit 3:14.
We ask for a TRANSITIONAL SHIFT of mercy and grace for Worship, Prayer and Study, inner healing, Ps 23:4, creation of a clean heart, Ps 51:10, a restoration of the joy of salvation, Ps 51:12, and THEN sinners will be converted to You, Ps 51:13, and Open Doors for Evangelism, Fellowship and Counseling Rev 3:7-8... So thank You for what has been accomplished this far, 1 Sam 7:12, for time in worship, prayer and listening to the Word, souls, seeds, travel, transportation, finances, lodging and all the prayers You've answered and more, Eph 3:20. Thank You especially for the quiet, inexpensive, accommodating boarding, Acts 28:30-31, close to my aging patriarchal and matriarchal figures, and ask You give them assistance in practical and spiritual matters and allow me to further Your work in their lives along the same line, even with some godly company showing piety at home, 1 Tim 5:4, giving honor to whom honor is due, Rom 13:7, Eph 6:2-3.
