Forgetting the Past

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

Isaiah 43:18 [NIV]

What do you do when your memory drags the “there and then” into the “here and now,” immersing you in the same old pain? The Bible answers, “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?”

Your past can infect your present and influence your future unless you decide to let it go. For the next few days, let’s consider this. First, let go of what God has forgiven! God’s only response to confessed sin is to forgive and forget it.

If it comes up again, you, not He, brought it up. The Bible tells us that “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us... and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1^st John 1:9).

Two things make letting go difficult:

1. Your feelings
   
   “I just don’t feel forgiven!” you say. However, you are forgiven by God’s grace obtained through Christ’s sacrifice - regardless of what your emotions are telling you. Don’t wait to feel it before you accept it; accept it and then you will start to feel it!
   
   
2. A wrong concept of God
   
   You say, “My earthly dad says that he forgives me, but each time I fail he throws all of my old offenses in my face again.” Your Heavenly Father doesn’t operate that way. He says that “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isa 43:25 NIV).

God doesn’t bring them up because He doesn’t remember them. All your sins were judged and paid for at Calvary. Once confessed, you’ll never again be charged with them. So rejoice and let them go. The Court of Heaven has ruled you not guilty!

Pastor Ng Francis
www.fnministries.com

Resurrection Power -- by Judypie

Many Christians who love the Lord have suffered trauma that left emotional wounds. Often this one event will hinder their spiritual development.

You are not responsible for what happened to you, but you are responsible for your present day response. You have the Life of God in you... be encouraged to speak Resurrection to the death that trauma brought to your soul.

You have passed from death to Life!

Father God, I arise to new life this day. I shake off the entanglements, hurts, bruises and sins of the past. It’s a new day! Thank You for doing a new thing in my life, Father. Forgetting the former things, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. I have the Life of God in me! Amen.

Scripture Meditation: Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 49:19; Philippians 3:13-14

I came to the world to be a Light. Anyone who puts his trust in Me will not be in darkness

John 12:46 (NLV)

Leave the Past Behind

Are you a runner? If so, running a mile is not such a difficult thing. Even if you were only able to walk... one mile is not an impossibility.

But imagine if you were on that mile journey and you paused to put a heavy backpack on. It was filled with broken pieces of bricks and rocks... and some metal joint and pipe pieces.

It would be quite difficult to run or walk that mile with such a heavy backpack on... but it is similar to what Marines and some other members of the armed forces do in training.

But now, let us take some hooks and wire and hang a half-dozen cast iron frying pans to the back of the backpack.

This would make the mile a bit more difficult. The added weight would drag you down. Also, the awkward motion of the swinging pans would compromise your center of gravity. Also, as the pans swing and your legs move, they would begin to bang painfully into your legs. The pain would hinder your progress.

But you are barely a few steps into your mile and now you have added a 25 pound sack of beans carried across your shoulders. The weight of the beans makes you lean forward to maintain your center of gravity. This places more stress on your leg muscles and makes it even more difficult for you to run or to move forward.

You may even collapse under the weight of it all.

Spiritually speaking, that is what happens when we allow our past to occupy and consume us.

The Bible tells us to cast aside sins and weights that would hinder us from running the race of life.

THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
[Hebrews 12:1]

I once had a dream where I was in a labyrinthine building. In each room, I saw disturbing images of some relatives who had hurt me as a child. It appeared that some were dead and laying in state, others were alive. I reached a room where a mental patient was frantically reciting dates as if his mind was gone. I sat across from him and spoke PEACE to him in the Name of the Lord. He stopped, calmed down, and smiled.

I awakened confused. That seemed a strange, yet vivid dream.

Later, the Lord revealed that this was symbolic of my being bound by my past... and that I could only have peace by forgiving things done in the past, forgetting those things that I can do nothing about, and looking forward for those GREATER BLESSINGS that are in Christ Jesus.

Forget those things that are behind...

Launch ahead to the things that are before...

And move into the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit and enjoy that peace that passes all understanding.

PEACE BE UNTO YOU RIGHT NOW IN THE NAME OF JESUS!