RELEASE YOUR PAST!

Let me say it another way…

LET GO OF YOUR PAST!

Or in case the first two weren’t clear…

DON’T HOLD ONTO YOUR PAST!

In fact, it’s time to throw a party and not invite your past to come!

You cannot move forward in life clinging to the things of the past.  What worked for you then may not work for you now. I tell people it’s not a wagon you fall off of, it’s the fact that you and I will resort back to old ways and behaviors when we are triggered and have not moved into victory from past hurts, pain and failures we have experienced. For those of you that would remember cassette tapes… 

My husband tells me when something in me is triggered by the pricking of an old wound that may not be completely healed yet…He would say, that is the old tape, remove that one and put a new one in.  I guess these days it would be something more modern than a cassette tape, but I think you get the point!

I would like you to look at a passage in Isaiah 43:16,18-19 from the Voice translation: 

“This is what the eternal one says, the one who does the impossible, the one who makes a path through the sea, a smooth road through tumultuous waters… then verse 18 goes on to say:

“Don’t revel only in the past or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by.  Watch closely, I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, and you are about to see it.”  

It’s so important to understand that not only does God assure us this isn’t His first rodeo. That He has done this before, but not only that, He is promising He will do it again! God is qualified to handle your struggles, dreams and your desire to move forward.  For some reason we have a tendency to forget what God remembers and remember what God forgets. When God forgives us and restores us, He wants us to forget the failures of the past, witness for Him in the present, and claim His promises for the future. 

His Word says: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.”  Here me on this; there is nothing wrong with thinking of the past, recounting experiences whether good or bad. But when we gear our present and future on those, we will have a tendency to get stuck, disappointed and frustrated if we keep trying to live from behind! Brian Houston said it right, “Your significance is in what’s ahead of you, not what is behind you.”

Another thing we need to consider is that as we age our bodies change, our body chemistry changes, life happens, changing of the seasons of our lives.  

Maybe the way you lost weight 10, 20 years ago doesn’t actually work anymore.  Hormones change, the stress level in our lives, your career, having children, financial responsibilities that you didn’t have before, maybe you are or have been a yo-yo dieter like I was and now your body has had to adapt to the changes it has gone through.  

Maybe you have been on a thousand different diets and have even come up with a few originals of your own…and you didn’t quite see them through and you and possibly your family has in some way or another labeled you a failure! 

You need to let that go. 

Failing is a learning experience so we can do better next time. There were many Biblical leaders who failed, but did they dwell on them? No, they learned from their mistakes and kept on moving forward. 

Determination and failure lead to success.You fail and you get up and you try again. Eventually you will get it right. Just ask Thomas Edison. When you give up that is failure.

For a good man may fall seven times and get back up again. (Prov. 24:16)

Know this: Your battle for true health is ultimately in your mind, not your body.

And that’s the first step you need to be willing to take.