Forgetting the Past

As we stand before the portal of the New Year, we don’t know what it’s going to bring, and I’m glad for that. I’m glad we can’t pull aside the curtain of time and see what the future has in store.

But there is one thing we do know, and that is we can leave the past behind, with all of its worries and cares, pains and heartaches, mistakes and blunders. Isn’t that wonderful? All of that is forever in the past, beyond our recall. We can’t undo one single act or unsay a single careless word, but we can make a fresh start in the coming year.

If you’ve received Jesus as your Savior, you don’t have to bear the burden of guilt or regret; all of the mistakes, regrets, and sorrows of the past year are in God’s almighty hand, covered by His love.

God can give you in this next year “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” He can bring honey out of the rock and sweet waters out of the bitter desert of the past, no matter what it was. All of this is promised you in His Word, if you are His. “All things work together for good to those who love God.” He can make it all work out for your good!

Many people say they believe in God’s mercy and forgiveness, yet they worry about the stains on the pages of their past. They never fully rejoice in the fact that God has blotted them out. Who wants to live in the past when the future holds such wonderful promises? “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

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Isaiah 61:3 (ESV) to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 43:25 (ESV) “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.