Driving with my dad was always an adventure. He obeyed the speed limit ... like, ALWAYS obeyed the speed limit. And if you were running late, he went five miles UNDER the speed limit just to prove his point that he was NOT going to get a ticket!

One thing Dad did in his older age while driving was he would look away from the road when distracted and his hands on the steering wheel would follow. If his phone dinged or rang, he would look at it and steer toward his hand holding that phone. If someone pointed out a sign, a deer or anything ... Dad would steer toward where he was looking. Please no one ask him to change the radio or the temperature of the air conditioning! Dad always went in the direction of his focus!

This same principle applies to our lives. You will go in the direction of your focus!

"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

We all have things in our past we want to forget: bad decisions, failed relationships, disappointments, sin, traumas, pain, heartbreaks, etc.  And we also have great victories in our past, great accomplishments, trophies we like to remember. We may even have amazing service/ministry moments and moves of God.

But God is a God of new things. He has some new things specifically for you. There is a time to recall the victories and learn from your past failures, but you cannot live your life focused on the past. You have to change the direction of your focus.

If you have been holding onto the past, focusing on the bad or the good things of your past and you are ready to turn and change the direction of your focus to the new things God wants to do in your life, your family or your ministry, say a prayer to God and declare to him that today is the day of the turn around! Now, go in the direction of your focus. Focus forward!

Written by Annette Chestnut, administrative support manager for Buckner Children and Family Services.

Do you want to receive a spiritual devotion each week? Sign up here to receive our Faith Focus newsletter.