Hindsight is always 20/20 as we look back on life. “I should have done this.” “Man, what was I thinking about back then?” “I wish I knew then what I know now.” If you could speak to your “younger self” what would you say?
Would you tell yourself to LIGHTEN UP and quit taking everything so seriously? Would you tell yourself to stop judging yourself all the time because you are harder on yourself than you would ever be on someone else who’s trying to live for Jesus. Remember that the Corinthians have all kinds of behaviors they need to work on but they are still called the “church and sanctified” (I Corinthians 1:2). These people still belong to God even though they’re not perfect! Maybe we need to tell “younger self” to lighten up.
Would you tell yourself to TIGHTEN UP and live for Jesus with more devotion? As you read and reread scriptures over the years, certain ones make you feel uncomfortable because you know you should be more totally committed to Jesus. Like Mark 8:34-37 when Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Maybe you would tell yourself to TOUGHEN UP and truly trust the Holy Spirit to help you live for Jesus and become more like Jesus rather than feel defeated because you fall short daily. We all need to encourage ourselves to do better rather than beat ourselves down. Remember the great verse in Romans 8:13 that reads, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live”. We start to trust ourselves and trust in God to work in our lives more.
Perhaps we’d tell younger me to LOOK UP. I mean, this life is not what Christianity is about. Living the Christian life is a preparation for what is to come – life with God in heaven for eternity. Paul told the young Christians in Thessalonica, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words”. (I Thessalonians 4:15-18). Maybe we should comfort and encourage younger me to look toward heaven.
What would you tell the younger you as you look back? We don’t want to live or die with regrets so it’s good to speak to younger me now. Also, it’s never too late to talk to your younger me. It is true that hindsight is 2020 but it is also true that it is better late than never.
Reread the scriptures in this devotional and then listen to Dear Younger Me by MercyMe.