Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, by some miracle, we could begin again, knowing what we know now? Things would be different, wouldn’t they? It is too bad life can’t be lived in reverse, if that were the case, you could use some of that mature knowledge to avoid making the mistakes which you ultimately regret later. But that’s not the way life works. In fact, I think we might need to make some mistakes in order to gain the knowledge, and we have all made our fair share of mistakes.
There have been many times in my life when things just didn’t turn out right. During some of those times, I found myself wishing I could turn back the hands of time. I longed to be able to start all over! I believe those times come to us all in our journey on earth. Some have made the wrong career choice and wish they could go back to school to be retrained, but now they must support a family. Some have made a bad business deal and now they are ruined and need to start from scratch again. How they wish they could go back. A failed marriage ruins family life and deeply wounds everyone involved. If only we could begin again and do it better. These kinds of events occur every day and no one is exempt from them. Think of the things in your life that you would like the opportunity to change. Oh, how we would like a do-over sometimes.
We call these memories ‘the past’ for obvious reasons – these experiences are in the past because they have passed! So it is obvious that you can’t change them. What’s done is done. The mistakes we’ve made are real and so are the consequences. But there is hope. The good news of the Gospel is that it is possible to begin again. There is forgiveness for the past in Christ. That’s the good news. But there is some bad news which comes with the good news. Sadly, there are many who have received this forgiveness, but they are still plagued by the past. One of the greatest obstacles facing those of us who want to truly ‘seize the day’ today … is yesterday! The past can be like a ball and chain around our ankles as we try to take strides towards the new day. Until we learn to deal with the past, we will never be able to seize the day and make the most of the opportunities we are given today.
For most of us, the past holds many good memories. We remember the good times: times when we were happy and enjoying life; times when we were with someone special. We remember the special events: birthdays, graduations, weddings and anniversaries, the birth of children and grandchildren. Good memories are a wonderful thing. It’s great to be able to tune in and play them back. It brings a smile to our face. We can certainly thank God for the good memories. The past can also give us valuable perspective. Although it has been said that, “the only thing we learn from the past is that we don’t learn from the past,” … we can actually learn from the past. The past can teach us many things about living in the present. The past is like the rearview mirror in our car. As we move forward, we regularly glance at it to keep us aware of what is behind us. The past makes us more knowledgeable and wiser. In that regard, the past is very good.
But the past also has a powerful dark side. The past can become a prison. It’s possible for the past to put us in a deep bondage. Along with the good memories, there are the memories of failure. Sometimes our memory can haunt us and debilitate us. Our failures can cause us to see ourselves as failures, or as unable to break the patterns of failure in our lives. We stereotype ourselves and thereby put ourselves in bondage. Many people live today imprisoned by their past – just where the devil wants them. In the most extreme cases, we see people sitting in mental hospitals constantly reliving the tragic events of yesterday. They are trapped by the things that have been and can’t see the things that are and could be. So how do we deal with the past? Some people re-live the past. They recount all the events of the past in great detail in their minds, over and over again. All of those negative emotions which they felt back then, they feel again. They beat themselves up because of experiences that are forever gone. Some people end up surrendering to the past. They decide that they will never rise above the past, so they resign themselves to be what the past has made them. After all, the lot has been cast, and they are now the product of their past.
Others learn how to defy the past and refuse to be dominated by what has happened before today. They recognise that while the past is an unchangeable part of their history, they can do something about the impact of the past on them today. They can’t control what has already happened, but they can control how they deal with the memories of the past. This is the key to how we deal with the past. There are basically three things you must do to effectively conquer your past, so you can seize the day.
The first is that you must recognise the past for what it is, the past. It is over, done, gone, finished, ended, it has passed. You can’t change one single thing that happened back then, whether back then was years ago or yesterday.
The second thing that you must do is recognise Satan’s strategy in reminding you of the past. His strategy is to discourage you and defeat you and the easiest way to do that for many people is to trap them in their past.
The third thing you must recognise is that you have complete control over the impact of the past on your life today. While you can’t change what has happened, you can change the way you respond to all the memories of the past. Simply put, we need divine amnesia.
Forget the past …
The Apostle Paul tells us that the way to deal with the past is to forget it.
Philippians 3:13-14 “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 is saying that the way to deal with the past is to forget it. We need divine amnesia. We know what amnesia is, but divine amnesia is something only God can give us. When I speak about forgetting the past, of course, I’m not talking about forgetting it mentally. Although there are many things I wish I could forget, unfortunately, God created our minds to be incredibly powerful. Even though we might not remember something consciously, sub-consciously it is always there. Every act, word, event, situation and circumstance is imbedded forever in our minds. When Paul speaks about forgetting the past, he means that we must forget it in the sense that we no longer allow it to have any control in our lives. Unless we learn to forget the past in this sense, we will always be on a leash. We will attempt to move forward in life, only to be snatched back time and again.
If you are thinking, “Well, that’s easier said than done,” you are right. But, by God’s grace, it can be done. Christ can liberate us from the past. The reason Christ came to this earth was to offer His life on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven. Christ can forgive our past. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ can release us from sin and the guilt of sin. There is nothing in your past too great for God to handle; no sin too big for God to forgive; no mistake too great that He cannot empower us to move on from. Christ can enable us to release the past and consciously embrace the present. He can enable us to replace “what has been” with “what can be.” He can empower us to seize the day!
Be intentional in the present …
We must not only develop a divine amnesia in terms of forgetting the past; but we must also engage in a deliberate activity in the present. To deal with the past effectively, we must live in the present and be intentional. One of the keys to living in the present is replacing pessimism from the past with optimism. It’s very hard to face failure in your own personal life and come away with an optimistic attitude. Pessimism seems to reign, and pessimism creates a cycle of despair. Many times, we become locked into pessimistic ways of thinking, and we end up bound mentally by these patterns of thought. Past failures may suggest to us that we will never succeed. After all, we have tried and failed. But often that is not the reality of the situation.
There was an experiment done with the Great Northern Pike fish in America years ago. The fish were placed into a tank with their favourite food, minnows. The problem was that a glass divider was inserted into the tank between the Pike and the minnows. Every time the Pike went for the minnows, they bumped their noses into this glass divider. Finally, convinced that the minnows were beyond reach, the fish simply gave up. When the glass divider was removed, the Great Northern Pike did not go for even one minnow. Sometimes, we are like that Pike. We’ve been convinced that we could never break free from the patterns of defeat and failure that have bound us. But that is not true.
God is an eternal optimist. I know that because when Jesus ascended into heaven, He put His disciples in charge of winning the world. But we can be optimists, too. We can be optimists when we come to understand that God truly has a plan for our lives. We can begin to look to the future with hope. A divine expectation can be created and grow within our hearts. An anticipation of what the possibilities are for our life can replace those negative patterns of thought which have bound us. If we are to live successfully in the present, we must not only put the past aside, but we must replace pessimism with optimism. There are good things which lie ahead. Say that to yourself every day, every hour is if you need to … there are good things which lie ahead.
Not only must we replace pessimism with optimism, but we must also replace passivism with activism. The past seeks to trap us by discouraging us to the point where we are so mentally exhausted, we just don’t want to try any more. Depressed people don’t even like to get out of bed and when they do, they just sit around in their pyjamas all day long or engage in hours of mind-numbing television or social media scrolling. Sometimes the first step out of that situation is to get out of bed, put your clothes on and do something useful! We need to act in faith and truly believe in what God can do. Paul says that he reaches towards what lies ahead. He is someone who is involved with the living of life. He is not merely content to be acted upon. He must act himself, and if we are to succeed, we must act as well.
I have said many times that it’s impossible to steer a parked car. Parked cars go nowhere. You can turn the steering wheel all you like, but it doesn’t change anything. Only as we begin to move are we able to accomplish those things we would like to see come to pass. We must be active. We must be on the move before God can guide us.
Jesus calls us to follow Him – not sit and watch Him pass by! The Christian life is a commitment to do something as well as be someone. The Christian life has been likened to a walk, a race, a fight. Those are all action terms. When Jesus calls us, He calls us not simply to believe in Him intellectually, but to follow Him in the living of our lives. It’s possible for a person to believe in Jesus intellectually like he believes in Napoleon or George Washington. You can hold an intellectual belief without making a life commitment to it. But that is not biblical faith. Faith in Jesus means we put our trust in Him. We trust Him with our lives. As we commit ourselves to follow Him and live for Him each and every day.
The Apostle Paul said he was reaching forward towards that which lies ahead. The picture here is of someone who is stretching forward, like a runner in a race, seeking to win, not merely to finish. But if we would win over the past, we must also be willing to aggressively stretch forward – not look back!
Be determined in reaching forward …
Now we must take willingness one step further. As we stretch forward, we must possess the quality of a determined attitude. Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Here is a man who is not content with just being willing. He is not simply reaching forward to what lies ahead, he is giving his all to that endeavour. He is so determined in his attitude that nothing will deter him. We must have this same determined attitude if we would succeed in conquering the demons of the past. We need to understand that we are engaged in real warfare. To be plagued by the past is to be under spiritual attack. That is why we must counter-attack by employing a strategy like Paul’s, whereby we forget the past and actively focus on the future.
Perhaps a closing thought on how to do this from the life of Jehoshaphat would help us understand what this determined attitude looks like. In 2 Chronicles 20 we find Jehoshaphat, King of Israel, in big trouble. He had three enemy nations preparing to attack him and He was completely outnumbered and overwhelmed, in human terms. We can apply the principles he applied to the enemy of the bondage of the past. Jehoshaphat did five really important things.
> He identified the enemy. We must recognise that there is a real and present force behind the negative emotions we feel from past events.
> He took it to the Lord. In verses 3-4 he proclaims a fast in order to seek help from the Lord.
> He admitted his inadequacy. Jehoshaphat, speaking to God, said in verse 12, “… we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
> He turned his attention to God.
> He relaxed in faith. God spoke to Jehoshaphat in verse 15 and said, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” In other words, God was saying to quit struggling and just relax.
Sometimes we are tempted to work things out for ourselves. When we fail, we feel that we have disappointed God. We feel that we have let God down. But we cannot let God down because we don’t hold God up. He holds us up. We don’t have God in our hands. He has us in His hands. What God wants us to do is to allow Him to work through us. If you relax in faith, God will enable you to forget the past and focus on the future He has for you.
Then, and only then, will you be able to truly seize the day!