Does Your Past Keep You From Your Present?

Isaiah 43:18-19, "Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. 19) Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."

2 Corinthians 5:17-18, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18) Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,"

Luke 9:62, "But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

When there are repetitions in subject matter that keep coming across my path via ears and eyes, I tend to start to take notice. I notice patterns and common "denominators" very quickly and in many of those instances, it leads me to the inspiration for my posts. I let the Holy Spirit inspire me for my posts and I rarely, if ever, write without His prompting. Since this blog is my God inspired and directed ministry, I don't want to write outside of His will. On some rare occasions, I have written more of a "story-time" kind of post, but it still was guided. This post was born out of several conversations with random people, some known to me and some not so much. It was also something I began to notice in the community writings, in posts about "fixing" one's pasts and even via some testimonies I watched from Christians who fought becoming a Christian BECAUSE of their pasts. When I began to piece together this pattern and puzzle, I saw a need, a dire need, to write this for whomever the Lord will bring to this article.

Live NOW and Look Ahead!

I started off with those particular Scriptures because it is pretty clear about our past and that it shall remain in our past and as part of our past. They clearly point out that once we become a Christ believing Christian, Born Again Christian, we are a NEW CREATION and all things are made new, including the renewal of our minds where our thoughts are housed. There are others I could, and still might, point out, but for now, it's a great start! For way too many people, both Christians and non-believers alike, their pasts haunt them because they become consumed with guilt, shame, remorse or even fear. These emotions tell them to reside in their past. They live with regrets, shame, disgust and grave remorse because of their past. Far too many can't seem to let the past go and move on, much less live for the here and now. Once you begin to rehash the past over and over and over again, it becomes who you are right now. It becomes all consuming while at the same time, prevents you from living your best life in the here and now; the best life that Jesus wants for you. It's important to note that we were not created to live in our pasts, nor to constantly rehash painful, destructive memories. We can learn from our pasts. We can reflect on our pasts. We can briefly ruminate. But the more we concentrate on the negatives, pains, sorrows, traumas and perceived wrongs, the less we will be able to move past them and allow the Lord to heal those wounds. As a matter of fact, the very beginning of this post is now in my past. That's how fast and furious time is to us! God never intended for us to reside in the darkness or in the recesses of our minds. God never intended for us to stay focused on our mistakes, our sins, our pain, our suffering, our wrongs, our trauma and remain there! It's destructive and causes more pain. Not only to you, but to those around you. That's the key! Our past memories can be a gentle reminder, and a wonderful lesson, in what not to do, how to handle something differently and to learn new coping skills. Our past memories can be a great learning tool to help move us past our trauma, pain and dysfunction. I've studied up on memory recall and it's a fascinating thing, our mind is amazing in its ability to mask what could be devastating while at the same time, assisting us in coping with some things to help us grow in order to help others! Memories can get skewered. They can change in their accuracy. They can lie to us. Memories can also be "influenced" by others by planting false memories. By that, I mean "leading" a recall with specific questions or what I call, power words. There's a very good reason why we are not able to accurately and precisely recall every, single, personal memory we've ever had in our lives. The present is a wonderful gift of renewal and it leads to a wonderful outlook in our future. Here is a link to my previous post for extra reading, called Old Paths and New Journeys, here.

So what happens when people keep reliving their pasts, living in their pasts, refusing to move on from their pasts? ALOT! Our past is just that.....the past. IT DOES NOT EXIST. Think on that for a moment and let it sink in! It's gone. Period. We can't go back to it, we can't change anything in it, and we can't do anything about it. Nothing we've said, done, thought, touched, seen, felt, or heard exists any longer in the here and now. Nothing is tangible once it has went through the five senses and becomes a memory. Even our memories fade if you really think about it. We can't remember very much of our entire lives in the whole scope of the life we've led thus far, no matter your age at the time of this writing. You see, every waking moment is gone. Poof! Some memories remain upon recall but so much is gone. You see, the enemy wants us to live in our past, to feel our pain, to live with regrets, to rehash the "what if's" and live blaming others for everything. He wants to KEEP us in the past, keeping our thoughts on what was, what could have been, what sins we've committed, what perceived wrongs have been committed against us, etc. The reason he wants to hold us there is simple. He KNOWS it's his ONLY power over us. He KNOWS he is not capable of creating anything new and the only things he is able to do is bring up our pasts, keeping our minds and thoughts focused away from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and throw those fiery darts every time we make progress. Let's take this a bit further. Most memories that we tend to ruminate and obsess over are the negative ones, those that hurt us, traumatized us, made us fail, made us fall, and made us feel pain. Sure we remember happy ones too but those aren't the ones we obsess over! But why? Well, he wants us to fall. He wants us to get angry at God. He wants us to blame God because blame is his weapon. He wants us to fall away from all that the Lord has for us. He wants us to remain in agony so we can't see and feel the peace and joy awaiting us. He doesn't want us anywhere near Jesus Christ because he knows Jesus is the truth, the life and the way that is eternal. He knows Jesus has already defeated him. He too has to bow down at the mention of Jesus' name!

We must not let our obsessive ruminations overcome our present. Once we begin to spend incessant amounts of time reliving our past over and over, it steals the only time we have....the here and now...RIGHT NOW. We can't let our past regrets or pain shape our present moments, nor should we let them drag us down. Isiah said, 43:18, "Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old" Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have [a]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." But far beyond these chosen authors, beyond the bible, we should really focus instead on what God says since there is no other foundation that needs to be laid for our lives than that already laid by Jesus. He said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." as quoted above in Luke 9:62, at the start of this post. So we're expected to NOT walk the fence between our past lives and our new life with Him. That’s the most direct mention of leaving that past life behind, that I can recollect. Basically though and indirectly, we can see Jesus’ attitude towards our failure to meet His standard was simply the following: Quit it! This is clearly seen in the powerful forgiving scene with the adulterer, "Go now and leave your life of sin." This scene can be found in John 8:1-11. I suggest you take a few minutes and read it. It's very powerful.

It's hard to live in something that doesn't exist, wouldn't you agree? There is no past. This means it doesn't exist. One cannot "live" there. Sure, our memories, such as they are, do exist. To break it down just a bit further, we can see that "Living in the past" is nothing more than a colloquialism that refers to obsessively considering our memories. As we do this, however, we consciously ignore the only time we have been given to live, the present moment. In Luke 17:21, Jesus said, "nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."" As I look back, as I may reminisce, I cannot see who I am. Neither can you or anyone for that matter. Jesus didn't say there's some special action you'll have to take to find the kingdom of God somehow in the future. The future doesn't exist either. It hasn't happened yet. The kingdom of God is right here, right now, right this very second and within each one of us who are born again. If you distract yourself with memories, with what might have been, with what was, with what should be, then you truly fail to see what is real, right in front of you, right here, right now. You see, you already have what you seek and you already are what you seek. It really isn't separate from you in space or time. We can't look for truth outside of ourselves. It can only be found in Jesus Christ. If you have read the Bible, then I'm sure you've noticed that it is forward looking. It only records the past only to point to the future. But it instructs us to live in the present throughout. It never instructs us to live in the past as it is gone. Satan, however, can only drudge up those memories from our pasts because it's the only thing that works for him. He isn't God our Creator. He isn't the Son, Jesus Christ. He can't create anything. He can only mimic, mock and destroy.

When you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior you are a new creation! God’s love never ends and always endures forever. It doesn’t matter if you were a murderer, prostitute, wiccan, or thief. God will forgive you and remember your sins no more. Hebrews 8:12, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." What you must do is walk faithfully with the Lord and put the past behind you. You can't move forward if you keep looking back. He made you a new creation for a purpose and He pulled you out of the darkness of your past so that you can live in peace and joy. Always remember this! God is always working in your life, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes where you can feel His presence, but even if it seems like He is not working in your life, know that He IS. We've all experienced times of distress and questioning. Sometimes we dwell on persecution we've received, things we have given up, or opportunities that have been lost because of being a Christian. For Christ we have to choose a harder life over an easier life, a rougher path over a smoother path. However, what we don't need to do is look back and say we could've done this and should've done that. We must remember to renew our minds. Daily. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Know that God will never leave you and He knows what is best far more than what you THINK is best. There's a grave misconception about Christians out there in this big old world and that's we are perceived as "perfect." In a sense, we ARE perfect IN CHRIST. However, we are not perfect in our bodies in this fallen world. Even as a Christian, we will make mistakes, we'll sin, we'll fall but all of these mistakes, slips and falls will only make you stronger, smarter, wiser, resilient, and builds you up as a more mature Christian. I remember once, in a very volatile work environment where I was constantly persecuted for my belief in Jesus Christ because I didn't hide who I belonged to, I was being mocked. I stood up in a conference room full of strangers (I had just started) and made a strong statement to the person who was mocking me. I said, "I am a Christian by Faith! The difference between me and those who have not been born again is that I am forgiven. It does not mean I am perfect or won't make mistakes. It means I will repent and try to turn from those sins and mistakes and be forgiven. I am covered by the Blood of Jesus who died on the Cross for my sins to be paid in full. He doesn't owe ME anything but I owe HIM everything!!" From that point on, until my last day with that company, I was attacked, persecuted and singled out. I fought daily because I knew Satan was behind it all. The path isn't easy but it is worth it!

I realize there are barriers for some people in leaving their past in the past. In my studies of memory recollections, and working around social workers and behaviorists, I am fully aware the more a memory is relived, focused on, obsessed over, the more it can "change" and the more it can cause more damage than it can heal. It is never healthy, in a fairly mentally healthy individual, to obsess over memories of wrong doing, trauma, pain and suffering. We have ALL had something in our past to have caused us trauma on some level. But a barrier often times surfaces in preventing further healing from happening and it's usually the inability to forgive. Forgiveness is powerful but isn't utilized much, or if it is, it's not in the correct manner. In the majority of trauma, there is an underlying common denominator....guilt. "What could I have done to prevent it?" "Why didn't I....?" "What if...?" "It was my fault because....." I could go on but you understand where this is going. Grief over past sins, pain and trauma can plunge people into a depth of sorrow so strong to them. Guilt then swallows them up, and they feel as if they are drowning in a cesspool of mud with no clarity in sight. As believers in Christ, many of us truly understand on an intellectual level what it means to be forgiven. We know that Christ’s death atones for our sins and that He paid our sin debt in full. By placing our faith in Him, we are saved into an eternal relationship with our Lord that NEVER changes. As we accept and believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to reside inside of us for all eternity. He is our comfort, our conviction, our intercessor. Even though we may still sin after becoming a Christian, no matter how badly we want it to stop, we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that when we turn to the Lord with a repentant heart, confessing our sin to Him, He will wash our sin away and forgive us. 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

From this deep seated guilt, sometimes, people discover that they aren't able to find the feeling of reconciliation with God. Many feel unworthy. No matter how often they sincerely confess and no matter after doing all that they can do in their minds to make reparation for their sins, they somehow still may feel as though they can't be forgiven. To them, it might seem as though their sins, things like divorce, murder, abortion, theft, addictions or adultery, are far beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness. With this thought process, they will then continue to carry the burden of their guilt along with them each day, weighed down by a feeling of permanent distance in their relationship with the Lord and never quite reaching the ability to receive, fully, the forgiveness necessary to move past their past. Guilt is based on a memory, a past wrong doing or a perceived wrong doing. What I'm about to say next might be hard to digest but it's something I feel needs to be said....reliving our darkest memories of our pasts, being obsessed with those painful difficult situations, is a form of self-harm and self-punishment that prevents progress and healing from beginning. As yourself this....."Why should I continue to remember and obsess over a memory so disturbing that causes me constant pain and sorrow? What purpose does it serve me if all it does is keep me in pain?" That's what guilt does. That's what unforgiveness does. That's what the past does. And that's what Satan does....and wants. We have a natural propensity to pay for our sins. Logically thinking, we understand that wrong actions deserve punishment. We may feel an odd sense of satisfaction in being punished (or punishing ourselves!) for our sins. So, then, our feelings of guilt, pain and rejection become the penance for our sin to win back God’s favor. But that's not how it works....It's true that our sins deserve terrible punishment, but Christ already endured that horrific punishment for us. It's simply not true that we must add our own punishment to Christ’s. Personal pain adds no atoning value to Christ’s sacrifice. Our forgiveness came at a very high cost to our Lord Jesus, and this cost is quite sufficient to pay for what we have already done or will do. While we still need to make reparation when we have wronged another person, we must not continually torture ourselves when the Lord has already forgiven us. This is hard for many of us but it's something we must all practice and work towards! Jesus has paid our penalty and our sin debt has been paid in full. We can't add to Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. It just can't be done!

Let's talk briefly about consequences because this also plays into the forgiveness aspect of this post. The definition of consequence is simple...."a result or effect of an action or condition." It's pretty easy for some to confuse natural consequences with God’s discipline; however, they are quite different. If you, perhaps, choose to jump from a balcony, you might likely sprain your ankle or break a bone. However, God didn't cause your ankle to twist or a bone to break just to punish you. It was gravity that drew you back to the earth’s surface (and a bit too quickly!). Your pain was simply a consequence of your choice in action. Much in the same way, sins that we've already been forgiven for long ago may still have consequences in our lives. An ex-spouse may be difficult to get along with. We may grieve on the due date of the baby that was aborted. We may suffer injuries from the accident that occurred while we were drinking/doing drugs/texting. We may suffer painful heartaches over someone who died as a result of our foolish choices. Yet none of these troubles actually represent God’s discipline. When we choose an action of sin and/or destruction, we must be prepared to pay the consequences. According to Romans 5:9-10, "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10) For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Think about that!! If, when we were God’s enemies, before we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! You see, our punishment has already been paid in Christ. As believers, we are forgiven for our actions and we are precious to the Lord, even when consequences from those actions remain in our lives. Consequences are from choices, not the discipline of God. Through our poor negative choices, however, we can be taught many lessons about choices, about turning from sin, about the conviction of the Holy Spirit and about the forgiveness and Grace of our Lord and Savior! Discipline from God can be summarized by Hebrews 12:11, "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Chastening means to "to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement; chastise."

Trust and Forgive!

The person struggling with the inability to accept God's forgiveness has usually suffered greatly and deeply. The pain from life’s losses, suffering, traumas and difficulties can feel quite overwhelming, and the instinctive response may literally be to lash out at the Sovereign One for not stopping it. Yet when we're angry with the Lord, we're just cutting ourselves off from the One who can truly heal our wounds in the first place. The psalmist has said in Psalm 115:3, "But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases" The Lord has the right to allow difficult things into our lives. He will prevent some things and He will allow some things. In His infinite wisdom, He has chosen to wait before blotting out all of the pain from this earth. As a result, we're still going to suffer from the consequences of living in a fallen world, from the sins of others, and from the sins of ourselves. Ultimately we know that God’s justice will prevail in all things. In the meantime, we may experience suffering. Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." With that said, there have been some worldly, and a few "faith based" counselors that have suggested to others that you need to "forgive God" for the things you have endured that He has "allowed." To be clear, never in Scripture are we ever asked, or instructed, to forgive God! He has NOT wronged us. We, however, are the wrong-doers to Him! God is ultimately the only truly wronged party. He is the only One who is truly innocent. It is we who have sinned against Him. But, in His graciousness, He has chosen to pay the penalty for our sins Himself and save us. If you find yourself holding onto anger against the Lord, let His grace melt your bitterness away. Only in submission to Him will you find true peace, joy and happiness.

Now don't misunderstand me when I say not to obsess or live in our past memories to mean we shouldn't remember. It's not a memory dump that is being spoken of here. The scriptures don't instruct us to memory dump either as even that would be impossible unless we all get subsequent memory loss or amnesia! The next step after you have been saved by Faith in Jesus is to fully surrender your entire life into the hands of God the Father so that He is fully free to lead you into His perfect plan and destiny for your life. This means your mind and thoughts should also be surrendered to Him as well! You must now be willing to make Jesus Lord over your life, not just your Savior. You must now become both saved and surrendered if you want to get anywhere in your new life with the Lord. Surrendering is the hard part for many people because that means giving up control. Control is nothing more than a compensation for a time someone lost the control over a situation that was traumatic or intense to them personally. So surrendering becomes difficult but it must be overcome in order to begin a new life with Jesus! He will restore, renew and lift you above all else! By making Jesus your Lord over your whole life, means that you are willing to turn the reins of your poorly run life over to Him so He can now lead your life into the specific directions He wills and wants it to go in. It's important for you to no longer be your own person, but to allow Jesus to drive. In our struggle through the hurts, traumas and pains of this life, we need to cling to the Scripture's teachings on forgiveness with all our heart. Real forgiveness is available to ALL people, a forgiveness that satisfies our deepest longing to be cleansed inside and out. Through Christ Jesus, all of our sins have been paid for. God’s plan is that our sorrow, guilt, trauma, pain over our sin would return our heart fully and genuinely to Him. He desires that we turn from that sin, turn from our past mistakes, from our past in general and ask for forgiveness, both from Him and from those we hurt, make reparation when possible, and then walk on with Him. Through that forgiveness, we will then be able to understand fully how to forgive those who have done us wrong, who have caused us pain, who have traumatized us and who have caused us undue suffering. We must be forgiven to understand how to forgive....and let go of our past. We must let go of sin, let go of our past, while leaving no regret behind so we can continue on with our Lord.

Once you enter into this full surrender with the Lord, one of the first things God may do with many of you is to take you back in your past so He can begin to clean up any wreckage that may have occurred. All of us have some kind of wreckage or carnage of some kind to be cleaned up. No one is exempt from this. This is NOT the same thing as living IN your past. This also doesn't mean He will take you back to relive TRAUMA. He will take you back to what you have done, what you have said, the sins you have committed. This is the cleansing part, not Him forcing you to relive the darkness that has been committed against you! That is not our Lord! Before you can really move forward into the divine destiny that God has in store for you in this life as a new creation, you might first have to deal with some specific things that's occurred in your past. Dealing with and living IN are two different things. We are all stuck in this life in having to deal with the reality of pure evil in our lives, in this world, through the activity of demonic spirits and bad and evil people who have chosen, with their own free wills, to live this life out on the dark side. The demonic realm is very real. Very active in this world as I write this post. Satan is at work hard and furiously and he's causing many people to fall into addictions because of their pasts. He's causing murderous rages, hate-filled carnage, low self-worth, abortions without remorse, violence, family breakages. He's causing paranormal interests, rampant lies, violence against the innocent children, addictions, adultery and wars. The darkness that he is in control of is permeating the earth at a rapid pace. As a direct result, every single one of us will get hurt to some degree and to some extent in this life. There is no getting around it and no hiding from it. We can't protect our loved ones from it. So, for many, some of these hurts will end up being extreme and traumatic. It will become a past that they will unfortunately relive. It will become a past memory or memories that they will live in. You see, every minute of every day there is someone getting murdered, robbed, abused, raped, violated or abducted. There is a long list of words to list to fill in the blanks of the trauma based emotions we will ultimately deal with at some point in our lives. We literally can't go one day without some kind of this activity being reported by our local news channels or world news channels. Jesus Himself said that a certain amount of tribulation and persecution would always come our way in this life.

These very things are why the Bible tells us that we must learn how to become good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We need to learn how to put on, and apply, the real armor of God for our lives. I wrote about the armor in an previous post that can be found here. We've all been born into a war zone of sorts as a result of the curse of Adam and Eve. Unless you learn how to walk in the power and anointing of God for your life then some of these torpedoes  may literally knock you right off the path and right out of your divine call in the Lord. All of us, to some degree or another, have issues from our past that have to be properly dealt with before we can really proceed to walk into the perfect plan of God for our lives. Dealing with those issues are imperative to our growth and to our calling in the Kingdom of God because through our pain and suffering we will also be able to help others. If we haven't dealt with those issues or haven't been able to work through them enough to allow healing to occur by Jesus Christ, we cannot be used as a solid testimony for what God has done in our lives. We can't very well tell others not to live in their pasts or to stop reliving their trauma memories because they are a new creation in Christ, if we are, in fact, doing the same thing. Some Christians are so bound up with the things that have happened to them in their past that they literally can't get off the couch to start living again, much less ever fully being able to fly into their divine destinies for the Lord! These are heartbreaking examples but they exist. Many of God’s majestic eagles have had their wings totally broken and decimated with some of the torpedoes they've been hit by. Many of them are now living on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, anti-psychotics and pain killers because they simply can no longer deal with the stress, pain, and heartache of this life. There are mental illnesses that have been acquired because of trauma and injustices against others. I'm not down-playing those situations but I also know healing can take place in many cases as well. We all have a testimony. We all have a purpose in Christ.

His truth will start to work to help set you free, no matter how bad some of the things may have been in your past. Both that you have done or that has been done to you. God can fully heal you and break off any past chain if you are willing to believe that He can do it for you. Breaking off the chains that bind us is a freeing example of the power of God's love and healing hand! Satan wants to keep us bound up in the heaviest of chains which is why he constantly brings up our past to us. It's why he constantly keeps attacking our thoughts and memories to bring us more pain and immobilize us to the point that we feel we can't move, breathe or move ahead! For example, some of God’s people are bound up with false chains of guilt as a direct result of the sexual molestation's that may have occurred in their dysfunctional families or through other friends/acquaintances. It is common for a victim to feel "guilty" and although they are NOT in any way, it's part of the control of the perpetrator which inevitably causes long lasting trauma and in some cases, the inability to get past that part of their lives in order to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean to forget. It means to release. God can fully break these types of chains off you, no matter how bad or how severe you think they may be. The Holy Spirit is the Master Surgeon and is the One that will be getting deep down into the recesses of where these hurts and pains are hiding. This is the inner healing that we all need for whatever hidden pains we are dealing with unresolved, and it's a process. If you'll be willing to cooperate with Him through the process, He will be able to cut out, mend and completely take away most, if not all of the trauma, suffering, pain and hurt experienced and associated with some of these painful events.

Isaiah 41:9-10, "You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
10) Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

So leave everything in God’s hands and eventually you’ll see God’s hand in everything. I have seen this truth work itself out over the years in my own life, family, career and career transitions, health challenges, relational issues and financial struggles. I’m really good at leaving things in God’s hands, but I honestly struggle not to take it back out of His hands to put back into mine. This has been hard for me to do over the years, part of the "control" I struggled with, but surrendering was integral to my leaving the "things" in His hands LONGER before I tried to snatch them back. I’ve never once regretted giving anything to the Lord because I knew His plans are better than mine and His handiwork is perfect, but I certainly have regretted taking it back! More than once too! I’m learning DAILY to trust the hands of the One whose handiwork declares His glory! Isaiah beautifully describes us as servants of the Lord chosen and accepted by Him. Chosen and accepted! Ah, music to my ears as it should be to yours too! There is absolutely no reason to fear or be dismayed, because the presence of God the Father is pronounced and is personal. He strengthens and helps His children by His Spirit and upholds those He loves by His totally trustworthy right hand. Faith unfolds beautifully by handing everything over to God’s hands and by beholding His hands in all things. This is a prime example to leave your past behind and give it all to the Lord! He'll take it away, He'll heal the pain and He'll give you peace where it didn't exist before. His hand is on your life so who better to hand everything to! Habakkuk 3:4, "His brightness was like the light; He had rays flashing from His hand, And there His power was hidden." I understand how difficult handing things over to the Lord is and I also understand that fear is part of reliving our pasts or living in our pasts. Fear and guilt and control intertwine to differing degrees. Remember though, fear is not of the Lord! Place your fears into the hands of the One whose own hand literally calmed the raging sea, and He will calm your heart. Leave your hurt and pain in the hands of the One whose own hand gave sight to the the blind, who made the lame to walk, and He will heal your wounded heart. There are many regrets that we all have from our past, but it doesn't mean we must continue living in them and rehashing them. Through forgiveness we can have an amazing today and an even amazing future!

Your entire attitude of mind changes when you are a new creation in Christ. Even though you're still tempted, you have a new heart and mind that God has given graciously to you, and your desire now should be only for the good. Instead of pursuing your old habits and interests, your interest should now be in the kingdom of heaven leading you to seek the things which are above with Christ. Colossians 3:1, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." You no longer have to be a slave to committing sin just because you are tempted and you are no longer have to be a slave to the commissions of the sins of others against you. Trauma is real. I've made it through some very traumatic things in my own life. Even though I don't obsess over it any longer, every now and again a flash will come to mind. Only now, once I allowed Jesus to heal me, I know they won't stay a part of my present or future. Through the power of the Holy Spirit you can overcome many things that you are tempted by as well as what has been done to you by the temptations of others. It was hard in the beginning to surrender my trauma memories and my thoughts to Jesus! I won't lie. It was HARD. The mind is a powerful yet fragile thing but then when you add to it the lies of Satan and you have a recipe for disaster. It took awhile too. But, God healed me. During the brief moments when a flash appears, I pray, I turn to my Lord and I pray! It's gone and Satan has been trampled underfoot. It's not easy and this post is written with love, experience and with a desire to see each and every one of you who have been led to this post, live out your life that the Lord Jesus has appointed you to live! In the here and NOW. In the PRESENT! I don't want to see any of you miss out on what He has for you by being chained to your past!

Isaiah 43:18-19, "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19) Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Ezekiel 36:26, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."


Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Philippians 3:12-14, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Work on putting your past away, and letting it die a slow death so that you can live a fully restored life in Christ. Let it go, leave it all into His hands and let nothing hinder your relationship with the Lord. It’s all about Christ, live for Him today and always. Allow the Lord to guide your life and allow Him to work in it. God can make all things, even those bad situations, work together for good.....




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