Putting the Past Behind

"...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." Philippians 3:13

 

God's mercy is new each and every morning. Each day allows us a fresh place to begin. Perhaps this is where the lyrics of a particular song come from, 'it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me'. When God made the earth it was with clear days and nights and I think that this was for more than one reason. Except for the obvious, the dawning of a new day brings new hope for us, a fresh start. God wants us to regularly put the past behind and have a new beginning in whatever way we might need.

You may have been trapped in sin for some reason, and even though you have repented, you still feel guilty. Sincere repentance brings a fresh, new start just like the dawning of a new day.

Once you understand the great mercy of God and begin to receive it, you are more inclined to give mercy. You may have been badly hurt by someone in the past and it continues to turn your life upside down. You have anger, upset and bitterness raging inside you because of the trauma afflicted upon you. The only way to put these hurts behind you is to forgive the person who did you wrong. Forgiveness is the clear key to putting the past where it belongs - in the past!

God has so many great plans for your life and so many new things on the horizon of your life, but you will never see them if you constantly live and relive the past. Every time that you think and talk about the past from a non-healed stance, you are keeping yourself trapped in it.

 

Every day is a new day, a gift from God. Don't waste today by being trapped in yesterday.