Letting Go of Your Past

With the end in mind (remember what Pastor Dennis said week), asking ourselves what kind of old person do we want to be...Sunday's message is such a key to being a kind, loving, giving and wise "chronologically blessed" person.

Teach us to understand how many days we have. Then we will have a heart of wisdom to give You. Psalm 90:12

Sean reminded us this morning that life is a gift from God. Pondering this, I asked myself how do I want people to treat a thoughtful gift that I have given them...I want them to appreciate it and use it the way it was intended. I think that reflects God's desire for us....appreciate the gift of days He has given us. Use them the way He intended. To start, throw out the garbage from our past, better yet recycle...( To extract useful materials from garbage or waste)...Let God take our past hurts, disappointments and bad experiences and turn them into what will work for our good.

3 Types of Emotional Garbage

• We rehearse our resentments...letting the sad, bad, mad story go round and round in our minds and sometimes out loud to anyone that will listen...(Put the ball down!) stop the "voices"...I think a verse that is helpful here is-

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2Corinthians 10:5

• Remember our regrets...God doesn't remember them, why should we..."For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12.

• Reinforce our remorse...think about what reinforcing looks like- thick, heavy, built up, hard...that is what our heart looks like when we reinforce our remorse. But God- " will give them(us) an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them(us); I will remove from them(us) their(our) heart of stone and give them(us) a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:1

I want to be a person that can pass on the love of Christ to others and so this week I am going to put the garbage out, put the ball down...run the race looking forward to the goal...to be like Jesus.