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“Get over it!” If someone barked that to you, you might take offense at it. But there truly are things we need to “get over,” things that waste our time and energy.
We need to get over our tendency to get our feelings hurt easily, and in addition, we need to get over past hurts.
In Philippians 3 Paul writes, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14).
Paul is focused on one thing: winning the prize, doing what God has called him to do. When you don’t do that, the future is on hold for you because you are obsessed with the past.
Paul could put his past behind him because he had a goal in front of him. You know, when you’re occupied with doing something worthwhile, when you have activities that are meaningful and important, you can put the past behind you much more easily. I notice that people who are inactive are much more likely to be consumed with their past. One of the great blessings of being involved in the lives of others is that it causes you to forget yourself.
Another reason Paul could put his past behind him was that he knew he was forgiven and that God remembered his past sins no more. Surely he must have struggled with the fact that he had persecuted and killed Christians in his past, but on that Damascus road he found Jesus and from that point on he was a forgiven man, and he had accepted that forgiveness.
Maybe that is what is keeping you enslaved to your past—you really don’t feel like God has forgiven you. Well, if you sincerely asked him to in the name of Jesus and through his shed blood, then he had to forgive you or he would be a liar—and God is not a liar. So, maybe you just don’t feel forgiven. That’s where you must ignore those feelings and live by faith.
When the enemy comes to haunt you with those past sins, quote 1 John 1:9 over and over—out loud if possible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”