The Past; How to Leave it Behind

The past. Sadly, a place that many of us find ourselves living in in the present. Try as we might, we find ourselves perpetually and irrevocably drawn to the past. We fantasize about it, we agonize about it, we wish for and yearn for it, and we often times can not push forward because of our regret of it. But whatever the reason might be, we have got to move forward from it. If we do not learn to move forward, to let the past die and pick up new beginnings with God, we will forever be prisoners of bondage, baggage, heartbreaks, let downs, regrets, disappointments, failures, and everything that makes our past our past.

I know that most of us would like to think that we are over something just because we have walked away from or exited the situation. But I'd like to propose that while physically you can have moved forward, that your past can still emotionally, mentally, and spiritually hold you captive. I say this as someone who at 25 has spent a great majority of that 25 years living in my past. I've lived in my mistakes. Reliving them and rehearsing them. I've lived in my heartbreaks. Replaying them over and over in my head wondering what could have, should have, or would have been. I've lived in my disappointments, who I could have been, would have been, should have been. The truth about the past that we so often overlook is this: There is a reason that it is the past. Regardless of any lingering denial that we may have, we can all at the end of the day look back at the past, and find the turning point. The point at which it went from being the present, to being something that needed to be left in the past. Letting go, and moving on have been areas of great struggle for me my whole life. But as I've grown in my walk with God, I've learned more and more how to do just that. I'd like to with you the 3 ways that I've learned to accept what is as what was, and let my past be my past. Let go.

WE HAVE TO STOP LIVING IN THE PAST

Well, hello Dr. Obvious. But seriously, it is exactly what it sounds like. What I mean by that is that we have got to stop dwelling in, wishing for, and mourning our past. Yes, I understand that your hopes and dreams for that season of your life did not come to fruition. I understand that you had to let go of and sacrifice some things that you did not want to. I know that you had plans, and they did not turn out the way that you wanted them to. But the reality of the situation is, once something is done it is done. You can wish all day long for that old thing back, you can sit around and cry and mourn the fact that the relationship failed, or that you lost that job that you thought you wanted for the rest of your life. You can kick, you can scream, you can click your heals 3 times. But once something has died, it is gone. And we have got to learn how to let a dead thing lie. Does it hurt? What kind of question is that? Of course it hurts. It's never easy to watch something that you gave so much life to die. It's never painless to have to sacrifice. But the new thing that God is doing in your life will ALWAYS be better than whatever it is you are sacrificing. In fact, God tells us in 1 Samuel 16:1, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing as I have rejected him as king over Israel? Go, fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I have appointed a son of Jesse's to be king." God is saying "listen, how long are you going to cry and mourn because what I did was not what you wanted? How long will you walk around in mourning because My will was not your own? It's time to move. Go, fill your horn and get moving. Don't stand still here in this moment that is already the past, because I have a plan, and I know what I am doing." And this is exactly what we do. So many times, things happen to us, and we just stand still in that moment, in that pain, in that disappointment. Meanwhile, God has already started moving forward with His plan, and time is following Him. And that present moment has already become the past in God's eyes because the simple fact is He has a plan, and He is already at work, and you are still standing still. We've got to understand that God's will is perfect, and sovereign. And while our plans will fail, and fall apart, and lead us into harms way, God's never will. He's always interested in what is best for you.

WE HAVE TO LET GOD BEGIN TO DO A NEW THING

Ever heard the saying out with the old in with the new? Well, that's what you have to learn to do. We've got to learn when it's time to let the old be old, and let God begin anew with us. It's hard. I understand that. And it takes time, it takes patience, and it takes intentionality. By intentionality I mean that you have to feel the pain, the frustration, the pangs that come with letting go, and still press forward and do it anyway. We keep asking God to help us let go. God help us to move forward. But you have got to help yourself first. God is wanting to do that new things in your life. He is wanting to propel you forward and to take you to new heights, but YOU are standing in HIS way, because you have not made the decision and the intentional and willing choice to let go of your past, and give God your future. You have to get the understanding that your future is waiting on you. Yes your past may not have been what you wanted it to be. And I won't tell you that your entire future will be what you want it to be. There will be times and seasons where your plans completely fall apart and leave you wrecked. But even then, God's future for you is brighter than every one of those moments and seasons. He is always taking you from Glory to Glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), and He always has a new and better plan than the last. He proves this in Isaiah 43:19 when He says "I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." God is saying that I am trying to do something new and greater in your life. But I need you to first forget the old thing. Let go of what was behind you and hold my hand while I take you into something better. God will NEVER ask you to sacrifice or let go of something, and then not give you something better.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

We've got to change our perspective. What we don't think about is that God is omnipotent. Again, the bible says that His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. And what this means is that God knows our beginning from our end. He has seen every turn, every wrong decision, every heartbreak, and every weapon formed against us. And so what we have to realize is that God sees and knows everything, which includes everything that we do not. God sees when someone is doing something in secret to us and we have no idea. God knows when someone has plans against us, and we have no idea. He knows when people have wrong intentions and wrong motives towards us. He knows everything. And because God knows everything, He will sometimes uproot and upset our relationships, our friendships, our plan, and our own agendas when He sees something that puts us in harms way ahead. The bible says in Matthew 5:45 "For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." What that means is just as God sheds light on the righteous, He sheds the same light on the unjust and the unrighteous and He will bring to light their wrongs. So what we have to do is get to a point to where we understand and appreciate what God knows that we do not. We have to look back at our past, and say you know what, God knew that this was going to happen, and by allowing them to leave, or telling me to walk away, God was actually saving me. I can not count the number of times in my life that I was so hurt when I had to walk away from something and leave it in the past, just to find out later on that God had saved me from something. So we have got to adopt the perspective that God saved me. God saved me from that person that was cheating on me and I didn't know they were. God saved me from that person who was pretending to be my friend and they weren't. God saved me. And when you begin to look at it like that and you begin to become grateful for God's awesomeness, and grateful that He loves you so much that He would save you from what you never knew was coming, it becomes easier to let the past die, and to move forward.

There is nothing in the past for you, that God can't replace in your future one hundred fold. Let it go. And look forward Queen. You future is so much brighter than your past.

-Amanda Hill, Founder of Queendom Peak