Pastor Kent Christmas | From The Present To The Past | June 10, 2026
Understanding God’s Perspective: Moving From The Present Back To The Past
Have you ever wondered how God views time and purpose in our lives? As Christians, our natural instinct is always to look ahead—making plans, dreaming big, praying for the future. But what if God is more focused on taking us back to something deeper, something original—His perfect plan? In today’s message, we’ll explore the biblical truth that God operates differently than we do. We’ll see how He calls us back to the blueprint He designed for us from the very beginning, and how every season, every trial, and every triumph works together to bring us into alignment with His original intent.
God’s Unique Way: Contrary to Human Perspective
It’s so easy for us to get caught up in anticipation. We think of the now, but our hearts leap towards what’s next. In contrast, God’s Word makes clear: “My ways are not your ways, and My thoughts are not your thoughts.” He doesn’t strategize the way we do. While we look ahead and visualize what could happen, God is steadily at work, bringing us back to a perfection that once was—His original creation, untainted by sin.
Think about the Garden of Eden—a place where sin wasn’t found, peace covered creation, and there was no hint of curse or decay. Lions laid with lambs; all of creation was in perfect harmony. When God created Adam, He designed mankind to reflect Himself as closely as possible. Right now, God’s desire is to restore both humanity and His church to that pure, complete relationship. In other words, while we’re reaching for the future, God wants to restore us to something we had in the beginning—His original plan.
The Principle of Restoration
When you understand that God is in the business of restoration, it shifts your entire perspective on life. Everything God does is about bringing you and me back to His initial purpose for us. That’s why the journey for every Christian is a return home—to the way God originally designed us to be.
Before You Were Born, God Knew You
Let’s look at God’s Word in Jeremiah 1. The Lord tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you as a prophet to the nations.” What an incredible revelation! This means our existence, purpose, and calling aren’t just ideas that God comes up with on the fly. Long before we took our first breath, God knew us intimately—He established our purpose before we ever existed in the natural world.
Jeremiah’s life, like ours, is an ongoing process of discovery, growth, and challenge. But from God’s perspective, it’s a process of returning to the plans and purposes He set for us before we were ever born. As we mature, His aim is to align us with His original intent.
God’s Blueprint in the Psalms
Psalm 139 beautifully captures this idea. The Psalmist praises the Lord because he knows he is “fearfully and wonderfully made”—a marvelous work created in secret. The passage states: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet
