04 Jan What You See Depends on How You Look at It

I always get a kick out of those pictures that appear to be of different things, depending upon the angle at which you view them. It might be a young woman from one perspective, or a very old woman from another. Or maybe a horse from one angle, and a tree from another. The turn of the new year is a good time to remember that our past can appear the same way.

It would be easy for me to look back on 2025 as a very difficult year. There was a lot of church drama and, quite candidly, I made some significant mistakes in my ministry. We can enter the new year carrying anxiety, regret and even fear over the mistakes of last year. Or, we can make a different choice. Oswald Chambers put it this way:

At the end of the year, we turn with eagerness to all that God has planned for our future. And yet anxiety is likely to arise from remembering our past. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is likely to be tempered by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays. He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry for the future. (My Utmost for His Highest devotional for December 31)

“He allows the memory of (our mistakes) to turn the past into a ministry for the future.” It’s important to see the power in that sentence. I must confess that I allowed some significant mistakes to paralyze me in ministry for a time last year. When I look back now, I see God used those “sins and blunders” to stretch me, teach me, and learn to rely on Him and not myself.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 (NIV)

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)

Even when trials are of our own making, God is in them with us, using them for His glory and our good. So, you can view last year’s mistakes from two perspectives:

1. You can dwell in shame and regret over them, neither of which comes from God.
2. You can look to the new year with excitement and expectancy as to how God will, as Chambers put it, “turn the past into a ministry for the future.”

The choice is yours. See your mistakes of 2025 from God’s perspective and have a blessed 2026!

Pastor Jerry Bader