The Focus: Let God deal with the past

0

Everything changes! If you put leftover macaroni and cheese in a refrigerator for a month – – it becomes green and fuzzy! It changes into something unhealthy and non-nutritious.

But, while most food items will spoil over time, our past has no expiration date!

Everyone wrestles with his or her past. Oscar Wilde said, “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” But regret is sometimes the reason we try.

The past is a major reason for anxiety and addictions. There are two things people cannot do with their past: they can’t forget it (Psalm 51:3) and they can’t undo it. BUT – – we certainly can relive it!!

One positive way we can cope with the past is to let God deal with it His way. As Christians, we choose to face our past with God’s help. As Christians, our sins have been erased – forgiven and forgotten by God. Jesus declares our innocence from sin. God has a great big Magna Doodle and He was wiped our sins away!! Isaiah 43:25 states: “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My sake, and remembers your sins no more!”

This transformation from guilt to forgiveness can be difficult to believe and accept. The past can haunt, hinder, harm and hold us. Dwelling on our past sins can prevent us from seeing the new things God creates in us and for us. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

What should we do with our past? Learn from it, but then let it go (or leave it – see John 8:11).

Jesus does not want us to look back (Luke 9:62). The apostle Paul even writes about this in Philippians 3:12-14. There are two things we cannot change: God and the past.

So we should let the unchangeable God deal with our unchangeable past!!

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2016/01/web1_DennisWheelernewWEB-1.jpg

By Dennis Wheeler

Dennis Wheeler is a volunteer citizen columnist, who serves The Daily Advocate readers weekly with his weekly column The Focus. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

No posts to display