Refuse to let your past steal your future. This year God wants to give you a new start. Let’s face it, we all have relationships that can’t be healed, and issues that will never be resolved ion the way we’d like. But by God’s grace we can forgive, forget, and move on. You don’t have to lie awake at night digging up old bones, picking at scars, and reviving painful memories. If you give them an opening, the ghosts of your past will make their home in your thoughts. We all still struggle in so many areas. Even the great apostle Paul admitted he didn’t have it all together. But, unlike people who condemn others for the exact same things they struggle with themselves, Paul admitted: ‘I know the law but…can’t keep it…sin…keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I…need help!…I decide to do good, but…My decisions…don’t result in actions. Something…gets the better of me every time’ (Romans 7:17-20 MSG). ‘Thank you, Paul,’ from all of us who made the mistake of thinking that once we became Christians there would be no more struggles! But Paul didn’t stop there; he added these two important Scriptures: 1) ‘Just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may live a new life’ (Romans 6:4 NIV). 2) ‘In the same way [as Christ], count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (v. 11 NIV). SO how should we handle our old issues? Admit them, give them up, and forget them! Instead of fighting battles you can’t win, let Christ’s resurrection power sweep through your life and break the ties between you and the pain of your past.
