Throughout the years I have seen people give their hearts to the Lord and try with all their might to serve Jesus Christ, but after awhile they fall away from the path of righteousness for one reason or another. Some stop reading the Word and lose their strength, some stop going to church because someone offended them, some are lured back to their old life by friends. There are many reasons why Christians turn away from the Lord, but I think one of the main reasons why they do, is that they cannot forget their past sins. They cannot let them go, they feel like God could never forgive them truly because in truth they can't forgive themselves.
"This is what the LORD says— "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland" Isaiah 43:16, 18-19)
God tells us in His Word to forget the former things. We aren't suppose to dwell on the past. We can't change anything that happened even one minute ago, one minute ago is the past. But Satan knows that if he can get you to feel guilt over your past, that has already been forgiven by God, then he can defeat you and so he will keep pushing it in front of you, he will keep reminding you of your failures.That is not God's will for your life.
God wants you to actively forget the past. But how do we do that? First we must realize that when we are reminded, in an acusatory way, of our past it is coming straight at us from Satan, the enemy of our soul. God will never remind us of our past. He has removed our sins from us, not to be held against us anymore.
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Secondly, when a reminder comes we must remind ourselves that God does not hold that sin against us, He has forgiven it. We are clean. We are a new creation in Christ.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
When we come to Christ we are a new creation. We get a fresh start, a new beginning. Isn't God good? Isn't He wonderful that He would not hold our sins of our pasts against us? And that would be good enough, but God does so much more for us. If we go back to our text found in Isaiah 43:19 "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." we see that not only does God forget our past but He tells us that He is doing a new thing, He is creating a new person. He is promising that He will take us out of our wilderness sin and our desert of barrenness and He will make a new life for us. He promises us that instead of wilderness and deserts He will give us 'springs' and 'rivers' two symbols of life. He will give us new life, a new beginning, a fresh start, a time of refreshing. God is so good!
So when Satan reminds you of your past, remind him that you have no past, it's been wiped clean. It's been erased. You are a new creation, a brand new person. What a fresh start to a new year, to be reminded that when we give our past over to God, we have a new beginning! Walk away from your past. God has left it behind, now it's up to you to leave it behind. God bless you!
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