I love to head out in the boat and look behind us at the wake we leave behind. I always say to myself, "I'm leaving it all behind." Christmas week we were blessed to go for a boat ride and I said it again! There is no better way for me to finish a tough week than physically seeing me leave all the stuff behind mentally!
Some of us take our past and the stress that goes with it everywhere we go, towing it along behind us. It is like we stuff it all in the biggest backpack we can find and we try to carry it. It burdens us every step of the way. A lot of folks are stuck in the past always looking back. Maybe they are filled with regrets over bad decisions or haunted by what they did wrong.
Some people are stuck in the glory of the past. The remember how great they used to be and what great things they used to do. Oh, the good ole days! Our past is comfortable and it is like your favorite chair that is worn out but it is yours. It fits us just right. But God tells us to forget the former things and not to dwell on the past. In Isaiah 43: 18-19, " Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
Our past are important and valuable but we only need to take our lessons learned with us. In regards to your past, your sins are forgiven. Luke 7: 48, "Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” We may have made the past comfortable but it does not breathe, think or talk but we let it be so powerful that we can let it take over our future. The Bible reminds us that in God's new world Jesus will not even call to mind the things of the past in this world we now live in. Isaiah 65: 17, "See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."
The past is done. The past is over. Today is a new day. Psalm 118: 24, "The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad." Do not miss out on the blessings of today because you are stuck in the past. There is no future living in the past! Release the past and live in the moment with God. He is in your today and is waiting for you! He wants us to live today! Philippians 3: 13-14, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 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 think Charles Dickens says it well. "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
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