Gerald Roberts
Past performance does not necessarily indicate future results.
What does this mean? In the financial world, this is a disclaimer used primarily to alert investors that even though a stock or mutual fund has done well in the past, it is not guaranteed in any way to do so in the future. This is a required disclaimer by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a warning to investors or potential investors to do their homework and understand the nature of the investment vehicle they are considering venturing into.
The seller of the stock, bond, or fund, The Broker, wants you to buy his product. Like any salesman, he will be quick to show you all the shiny bells and neat whistles but may fail to disclose the flat tire.
We hold on to “past results” when someone we know is trying to change from an old lifestyle. We frequently will not give them credit for what they are trying to do, and as a result are waiting to see them fail. We make bets on how long it will take them to return to their old ways. As soon as they stumble we are quick to say “you see? I told you he wasn’t for real!”
Proverbs 24:17 warns us not to do so with our enemies; “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:” How much more then for our brother?
Sometimes, we even have these perceptions about ourselves. We can be our own worst enemy, telling ourselves there is no use in trying to change; we are just going to fail anyway.
Past performance is not indicative of future results! We do not have to fail. We do not have to expect others to fail. When we do this we are creating a self fulfilling prophecy that goes against Bible teaching. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 tells us “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
I am reminded of a Christian brother of mine who recently left a concern with which we were both involved. I wished him well, and truly hoped and prayed for his success in his new endeavor. However, in the back of my mind I was giving him a window of time in which I expected to see him fail. I look at this now and can see it was a combination of my knowledge of his past and a projection of my own past history combined. I knew he had tried on several occasions to change his life with limited success, but so had I. It was probably more of my own shortcomings being projected onto him than a desire to really see him fail. It could have been my way of coping with my own fear of failing again. Either way it was not fair to him or me. Neither was I trusting in the power of the Lord to do magnificent things in both of our lives.
Further, it is bad enough that I harbored these thoughts within myself. If they had been known to him at the time, they could have served as a stumbling block to him. When we step out on something new, stepping out on faith, we do not need discouragement from the brethren. This is not love, and is counter to the commandments to love one another.
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
When I see myself thinking and acting in this manner I am reminded of this passage in James 1: 5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
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