Releasing the past is key to our surrendering control to God. And letting go of the past goes along with repentance. Once we have repented for the past, we move forward with our lives. Yet the journey with God has just begun.
Why do we hang onto our past?
Repentance allows us to escape the long-term consequences of our sin and we find redemption in the salvation that Jesus gave to us on the cross. But breaking loose from the short-term pains of our sin is a journey. Our life up to this point has been the past. Yesterday and the days before them. We have learned over time how to do things. Some of the things we learned to do were good. And there were habits, thoughts, and actionable events that we did that were bad.
Some habits and things we have learned are hard to break. A young child who accepts Christ at an early age has fewer ‘things’ to repent for but the sin is still there. We are all born with the ability to sin and God puts that sin on Christ at the cross.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6 ESV
When we accept Christ at a later age, it can be harder to release the past with those bad habits, events, and thoughts behind us. These habits are grained into who we are so they tend to cling to us.
At whatever age a person chooses to repent and accept the gift of salvation from God, we have sins and a past that we need to leave behind us.
How can our past be forgiven?
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:23-24 ESV
Let me break these verses down a bit. We know that we all sin. This sin keeps us from being able to be in the presence of a Holy God. That is why we ‘fall short.’ There is nothing that we can do to remedy this sin on our own.
The action we need to do is to repent of our sins and make a decision to choose God’s gift. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are choosing His gift given to us, called grace.
God’s grace is given to us as something we don’t deserve, but He offers it to us because He loves us and gave His son for us (John 3:16). By sending His son to die on the cross, Jesus paid the debt for our sin and we are now justified or found righteous before God.
This is at first hard to comprehend. But His death leads us to redemption because our past has been paid for by Jesus himself. Praise the Lord!
Why is releasing the past to God important for us to do?
If we don’t let go of the past, it is hard to move forward. All the sins from before drag you down and entice you to keep doing them. They trap you and you spiral downward. It can lead to depression, anger, resentment, and loss.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
James 1:14 ESV
Jesus has saved us and made us free from the burden of sin. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have earthly desires.
But you may say, but Cindy, what about Galatians 5:24?
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:24
Yes, those desires have been crucified with Christ. But we are all human and have the ability to call up those passions and desires from the dead, so to speak. That is why James says we can be enticed by our desire. It is there below the surface. And the evil one, who now knows you are a Christian, will do anything he can to get you to make you ineffective for Christ.
But the beautiful thing about the past is you can leave it there.
How do you begin releasing the past and continue your God journey forward?
Any of you who have been following me for a while, know that I have been on a journey to find contentment in God’s plan for my life. While I have been a Christ follower for nearly 50 years, I was seeking contentment in things of the world. Specifically for me, it was to have acclaim in my job and be successful at what I do. Then amid my quest to achieve great things for myself, my job changed and I had a choice to make. That is a snippet of my business story. It is now five years ago when I was given that choice. And I am glad that God allowed that to happen and I chose the job that I did and have not looked back.
The first six months after that decision were hard. I kept looking back and regretting my choices along the way. And I was angry at my former boss, the changes in my former department that should have been my accolades.
But God showed me how to put my past regrets behind me and move forward to a path of surrender, humility, trust, and waiting on Him.
Two verses that I have shared on this site from that journey are:
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 ESV
Four Ways to Release the Past and Move Forward
1. Forget the Past and Look Ahead to the Future
The first way to move forward is to do what the verse in Philippians says to do.
We need to forget the past sins or regrets that lie behind us. We need to turn forward and look ahead to the future. Not only here in this life, but in the life to come that we have with God.
Our sins have been washed free. That sin has been forgiven. We can let it go.
And when Satan tries to remind us of it, we can do what Paul told us in Corinthians.
2. Take Thoughts Captive to the Obedience of Christ
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV
Whenever I have negative thoughts that remind me of my sin or tell me lies that I am less than my identity in Christ, I stop and ask the Lord to take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. And name what the lie is and replace it with God’s truth.
Let’s say I thought I was worthless.
I would take that thought captive. And remind myself about the truth about being loved by God. One verse I mentioned a little bit ago was John 3:16 and how God loved us so much that He gave us His only Son for us.
3. Obey God’s Commands and Rely on the Holy Spirit
Before Jesus left the earth, He told his disciples that we show our love for him by keeping his commandments. And He told them a helper would come.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.
John 14:15-16
We learn that the Holy Spirit is with us once we choose to accept Christ. When we are finding it hard to obey God’s commands, we have the Holy Spirit as a guide. His job is to help us, guide us, and instruct us.
4. Walk in the Spirit
Earlier, I was talking about how our flesh tempts us. I love Jesus told us about the Spirit being life-giving.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
John 6:63 ESV
Jesus crucified the flesh (Galatians 5:24). But the Spirit gives us life. It is through the Spirit that we can move forward.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16 ESV
And we know from:
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 ESV
This walking is what we do every day. So walking by the Spirit is a daily thing. We lean on Him and ask Him for help. And amid these verses in Galatians 5, we learn how we can walk in the Spirit. It is with all the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
What is the result of Surrendering to God, Releasing the Past, and Moving Forward?
I love this verse in Isaiah and will close with this.
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Isaiah 58:11
