[By Erwin McManus. From 'The last arrow' devotional
SET YOUR PAST ON FIRE
In 1977 my family’s home erupted in an electrical fire that consumed everything inside. While my mother lamented the loss of my brother’s trophies and promised him they could be fixed, I remember that my brother seemed strangely unmoved. The insight he left me with that day was that if those trophies are the highlights of our life, then our lives were not worth living, going forward. Why waste time and effort to reclaim the past when it would be much better for us to focus on creating the future?
There are things and even people that you will have to leave behind if you are going to keep moving forward - anyone and anything that would keep you trapped in the past and would rob from you the future God has for you. Jesus clearly imparted to all of His disciples: You cannot follow me into the future if you are holding on to your past.
Your past will be your future until you have the courage to create a new one. Take every memory that continues to wound you, take all of the pain, all of the regret, take all of the bitterness and disappointment, take all the moments of betrayal and every failure out of your heart and put them in the fire.
Keep in mind that this is not an invitation for destructive behavior; don’t burn relational bridges or operate under a scorched-earth strategy. Try to make sure you do the right thing in the right way; appreciate the past, but live in the present and for the future. The journey into our best future always passes through the furnace. The fire both forges us to who we must become and frees us to live the life for which we were created.
What has a negative hold on your life that you need to leave in your past to create your future? Identify three strongholds over your decisions, behaviors, and relationships that you need to ‘burn’ to move forward into the life Jesus is calling you to live.]
and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives , and come to the land that I will show you.’
Acts 7:3 AMP
As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” He said to another, “Follow Me [accepting Me as Master and Teacher].” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the [spiritually] dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and spread the news about the kingdom of God.” Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord [as Your disciple]; but first let me say goodbye to those at my home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62 AMP
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]— he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:26 AMP
My Notes:
My past has had both excitement and sorrow, achievements and failures. At any specific moment the memory of either - good or bad - can occur; often causing me to feel sadness, grief or remorse that it is gone.
I need to process both the good and the bad of my past. I need to lay all of the past down; my failures and success, my joys and my pains. I have to accept what was and what is. Truly accept it. Then I have to believe there is more. More life, goodness and purpose in my future.
Our internal eyes, our hearts, will predominantly focus on what we value and desire the most. If what we desire the most, or if what our subconscious desires the most, is for things in our past to be different, then part of us will subconsciously live forever in our past.
If what we valued the most about our lives is lost in our past then we will find ourselves stuck; regretting and grieving the past, unable to wholly move forward with passion into the future. We must learn to see that the greatest and most valuable moments and experiences are in the future, and not our past.
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,"
Philippians 3:13 AMP
“Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18-19 AMP
Here are some tips on how to process internal memories and emotions - Take a moment to recognize the emotions, both joys and regrets of past experiences & memories. Offer gratefulness for the experience(s); and offer forgiveness, if necessary. Then accept that things are different now. Recognize that in this new and different time in life there are brand new, amazing experiences awaiting.
Here are some things of our pasts that we might need to process. Ask God to help guide you through your internal processing as specific things come into your consciousness.
- How your marriage or relationship used to be, but is now different. (Perhaps it used to seem happier, easier, etc. Grieve and process what seems to now be gone.)
- How you used to be. (I used to be more energetic, active, etc.)
- Jobs or friends that we used to enjoy. (We may miss our younger days, our friends, jobs, etc.)
- Past relationships. (Romantic or platonic relationships that are now gone, causing grief or sadness.)
- Things. (Possessions or belongings that we used to have.)
- Our past relationship, closeness and experiences with God. (Maybe our relationship with God seems to have changed over the years. Maybe we miss, and even grieve how our spiritual walk used to be.)
- Unfulfilled dreams and desires. (Maybe you never pursued, or never performed well in the sport, job, career or hobby that you had often dreamt of.)
We have many thoughts, beliefs and emotions regarding our pasts. Some of these are sadness, regret and anger. One thing to remember is that emotions like sadness and anger are often secondary emotions. And these secondary emotions originate from beliefs of fear.
The primary emotions - Fear, Glad, Mad & Sad are beliefs, and/or perceptions, before they are emotions. A belief precedes an emotion. We will feel the emotion of whatever we believe.
Fear - a belief that there is a threat
Mad - a belief that something is unjust / unfair
Sad - a belief that there is loss
Glad - a belief that something is good / beneficial
If we can surmise that fear is often the underlying root of regrets, remorse, bitterness, sadness and anger; then perhaps we should look deeper into what fear is, what it does, and how to deal with it.
[From a devotional, "The power to tread" by Vance K. Jackson -
Fear Has No Place.
“God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV
One of the most common tactics that the enemy uses to slow you down or to derail you from fulfilling your purpose is fear. Fear’s venomous sting was meant to paralyze you. Fear was sent to kill your purpose and to paralyze your destiny.
When fear tries to rule over you, you’ll begin to settle for less than what God has in store for you. Through the Blood of Jesus, fear has no rulership over you. God is greater than the fear that tries to taunt and debilitate you.
According to 1 Peter 5:7 KJV, the Bible teaches us to cast all of our care upon Christ and that includes our fears. Fear will cause you to draw back, shrivel up and downgrade your destiny and purpose. When fear knocks on the door of your heart, we are commanded by God to cast our fears, cares, concerns and worries over to Him — continually.
Every time fear tries to rear its ugly head or exert its power over you, God has commanded us to cast our care over to Him. The Amplified Version of 1 Peter 5:7 AMPC expounds on the word “care” in the following manner, “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” The Word of God teaches us to continually cast all of our care, anxieties, worries, and concerns, once and for all — to Christ.
The root of anxiety is fear. The foundation of worry is fear. The center of your concern is fear. When fear rules over your thoughts, desires and purpose, it will try to hold you hostage. But 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV states, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Through Jesus Christ, the spirit of fear and all its entanglements are broken.
When fear tries to enter your thoughts, declare God’s Word. When fear strikes and tries to grip your heart, fill your heart and mouth with praise and declare God’s Word over the circumstance. Find every scripture that you can that tackles the situation and use the Word of God to defeat the enemy in every area of your life.
Confess His Word over your situation and watch God get the victory through you. Fear has no place in your life. Tread over fear and every form of it. God is with you, and He is for you. “Have not I commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 AMPC]
My concluding notes:
When I have unresolved regrets, sorrows and grief from my past I need to recognize that fear is trying to paralyze me through these memories and emotions. Fears of failing again, fears and reminders of being hurt, wounded and disappointed. Fears of losing things that I loved. In many various ways fear tries to haunt me. To deter me from focusing on, and courageously pursuing, the future.
We can’t let our past limit our future. We can't let fear limit our future. We have to put effort into processing and letting the past go. There are many underlying fears, beliefs and emotions connected to our past. Let’s proactively search for what these are, answer them and put them to rest. Fear is working through our past to derail our future. Find what fears are haunting you from your past. Lets expose them with God’s truth and become completely liberated to live amazing lives in our future.
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