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I want to encourage you to let go of your past. I know—it’s not easy to do that. But like everything else in the Christian journey, it’s something you learn to do by faith, not necessarily by feelings. The passage in Scripture which speaks to this so clearly is from Philippians 3:13-14, where the Apostle Paul writes:
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 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.”
Paul says that he’s not all the way there—he doesn’t have everything figured out. But he knows that in order to go forward, he has to forget what is behind. That doesn’t mean you can literally erase your memory, but rather that you refuse to re-live the past, to dwell in the past. It’s gone and there’s nothing you can do to change it.
You must stop telling yourself that you are a victim or you aren’t qualified or you’ve messed up so much that there’s no hope. You can’t undo the past, but you can make today and all your tomorrows promising and good through the power of Jesus Christ.
There’s a prize ahead for you, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. There’s a reason to be hopeful and joyful because of Jesus who has called you to be in heaven with him. Dwelling on your past keeps you mired in hopelessness, self-pity, anger, or depression. God has good days ahead for you. Can you, by faith and through his power, let go of your past? Just pray right now that God will make that a reality in your life and keep praying it as often as you need to. You’ll discover that what you can’t do on your own—let go of your past—God can do for you.