MOVE PAST THE PAST
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
We may read Psalm 139 and wonder what happened between the time we were born and now. We started out with so much potential, but somewhere along the way, we picked up a basketful of bad habits, a brain full of foul memories, and an abundance of regrets. We became human!
We became the poster child for the saying “the here-and-now is about the there-and-then.” Past mistakes and past hurts have taken up permanent residency in our brains and come to mind at the most inconvenient times. Is there anything we can learn from the experience of others that will help us forget past hurts?
Recently, I heard the testimony of a woman in her early sixties who had suffered from chronic depression. One day as she was praying, she remembered a seemingly small, but in fact, life-changing incident that had occurred when she was in kindergarten. She had been talking too much in class. Suddenly the teacher grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to a tall stool. She lifted her onto the stool and placed a dunce cap on her head.
“It was like a movie playing in my head.” the woman explained. “I could hear the teacher’s voice and feel the hard stool I was sitting on. I could see the faces of the other children laughing at me. Suddenly, this mental video changed. Jesus walked into the room and there was a warm glow around him. As he started walking toward me, the teacher said, ‘Don’t!’
“Jesus looked directly at her. Calmly he said, ‘You be quiet,’ and walked toward me. He walked up to me, hugged me, and placed a golden crown on my head. He then handed me additional gold crowns and told me to give them to any other children who needed them. I felt a calm I had never known. Then my mental video ended. The pain of that kindergarten incident had affected me throughout my life, but God had given me a way to finally move past it.”
You remember the story of Joseph — the one with the coat of many colors. He sure had things that could have sent him off the deep end. His parents spoiled him, his brothers hated him and were about to kill him, choosing instead to sell him into slavery. How did he react? He turned to God for help. Joseph asked the Lord to help him forget his past. If you read the full account in Genesis, you will discover Joseph didn’t forget the incidents of the past; he forgot the pain of those incidents. His “here-and-now” became more important than his “there-and-then.”
Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” Genesis 41:51
Job was someone else who had more than his share of problems. You know the story. He lost everything, yet His devotion to the Lord enabled him to forget his troubles. “Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by. Job 11:13-16 (NIV)
We are encouraged to follow the example of the apostle Paul who shed the regrets of his past and kept his eye on what lay ahead. 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. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Philippians 3:13-15 (NIV)
Are you taking steps to move past the past, or is that old video still playing in your head? Ask Jesus to help you change the picture.
"Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.” — James Allen
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
Blessings, Don & Bonnie Sennott
From the book, Your Heart is an Open Book: Finding Answers in God’s Word
