White Board Reflections 1

Mikael used to have a whiteboard in his room that he used to write reminders to himself about how God wants us to live. I thought over the next few weeks I’d take a look at some of them and reflect on why Mikael wrote them down and what they mean for our lives.

One of the phrases Mikael wrote was, “God will steer but God won’t row.” I do truly believe that there are times where God does row because he carries us when we can’t go on, if we let him. However, I think the point of what Mikael wrote was that we have to do the work in our own progress in life. We have to work on our relationship with the Lord. Although our salvation is free, our daily spiritual lives require work or we will stagnate. As Paul says in Philippians 3: 13, 14, “…But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” I like this verse because it not only encourages me to work towards a goal of personal spiritual progress, it also makes it clear that I do not need to focus on past mistakes. In fact, I can forget them. Being able to be forgiven and forget past wrongdoing is so freeing and crucial to our growth.  If it were not so, we would become completely swamped in regret. Since I have forgiveness, I can keep rowing and  let God keep steering!