My Christian Womanhood teacher in College~ Mrs. Johnson~ told me to live each day as if it were my last. She is in Heaven now and her husband has remarried. She died young leaving behind six children. I bet she did not know that her life would be cut short when she taught that class. I hear her words of wisdom almost every day. I am sure she is dancing on the streets of gold this morning~ but I must tell you she was full of joy and a sweet smile dressed her face all the time she was here on earth. She molded my life so much in that year. I can't wait to tell her thank you and give her a big hug when I get to Heaven. One of the things she taught me was to let go of the past and move forward. We are all going to mess up. Ask forgiveness and move on~ full of joy!
It has been my goal to have joy! The older I get the more I see if we let circumstances of the past control our joy we will never have joy. God wants us to be joyful. In order to be joyful we must obey this verse~
Philippians 3:13
King James Version
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Why is forgetting the past so hard? I don't know. But I do know the enemy wants to remind us of it every chance he gets. He likes to put thoughts in our minds such as~
"God can't use me."
" You'll never be good enough."
" I will never be normal."
These thoughts are lies that we are believing! So many people in the Bible had a tainted past! Moses murdered~ Davis committed adultery~ Paul killed Christians.
There are examples one after another ~ but the point is we are all human. We have been hurt and at times we have hurt other people! None of us are without sin. When we accept Christ as our Saviour ~ He makes all things new. If you need to get things right with others then do so and move on. You must forgive others who have hurt you!~ Get over it!
Are you living in the past? If so ~get over it. Do you want to end up in a padded cell? Pity parties are a waste of time. Stop believing the lies that the enemy and the the world tells you! This going back and going back and feeling and healing our pain is not Biblical~ God's way is always the right way. If you have returned to the pit that God has brought you out of ~ get out!! We don't need to keep reliving our past in order to help others. I really feel we give more power to the enemy when we do this. My heart is burdened for a special person in my life who has chosen to do this. It is so unnecessary!
When Paul wrote about forgetting the past in the verse above I think he was writing with great experience. Can you imagine how he must have felt once he received Christ and realised all the guilt of his actions? All the Christians he had tortured to death. Now lets get real here~ that would put a person in a padded cell if they decided to dwell and continue to feel that pain. Paul understood that God had forgiven him and he had to put that former life in the past. He had to press forward and live his life as the new Paul~ no longer Saul. God even gave him a new name! And guess what? He didn't have to feel and heal all his pain forever to help people. Nope ~he forgot his past and pressed forward and he is still helping thousands of people this morning.
It is time to get over it!
Jason Gray - I Am New Lyrics
Now I won't deny
The worst you could say about me
But I'm not defined by mistakes that I've made
Because God says of me
I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved
I am new
Who I thought I was
And who I thought I had to be
I had to give them both up
Cause neither were willing
To ever believe
I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved
I am new
I am new
Too long have I lived in the shadow of shame
Believing that there was no way I could change
But the one who is making everything new
Doesn't see me the way that I do
He doesn't see me the way that I do
Hidden in Christ
Made in the image of the Giver of Life
Righteous and holy, reborn and remade
Accepted and worthy
This is our new name
This is who we are now...
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