Putting the Past Behind You

Leaving the past in the past is a hard. Sometimes it seems impossible. I am embarrassed to admit the number of times I have been kept up at night worrying about something from the past… like that will change it. Or sometimes I will think too much about people who are in the past. There are many things that I wish sometimes that I could change, sins that I wish I didn’t commit, conversations I would erase, and things that I should have done and didn’t.

At times, I can really get down on myself about the past, especially about the sins I wish that I hadn’t committed. I have to really work on remembering that the only person that truly matters is no longer holding those sins against me. Yes, my human relationships have been damaged by things I have done in the past (and, yes, that can be said of everyone on planet earth). However, the One who created me also redeemed me.

If I allow myself to think about what God has said about forgiving me of my sins, things don’t look quite so bad. Consider David for a moment. This was a man who was said to be after God’s own heart. Yet, somehow he fell into multiple sins all at one time. When Nathan called him out for his betrayal, adultery and murderous plotting, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (2 Sam. 12:13) David knew that he had been wrong. In fact, we can see in Psalm 51 his words of prayer to God after Nathan confronted him:

1 Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

15O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

build up the walls of Jerusalem;

19then will you delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

As sinful people, we need the forgiveness of God to restore is to personal relationship with God. This forgiveness releases us from the power of condemnation (Rom 8:1) . It frees us from God’s wrath (Psalm 38:1), blots out our transgressions in the eyes of God so it looks like they did not occur (Psalm 51:1, Isa. 43:250, delivers us from death which is the penalty of sin (Rom. 3:23) and it restores us to communion with God.

No one can forgive like God can. He is the only one whom which we truly sin against. Psalm 103:12 tells us that God has “removed our sin as far as the east is from the west.” I can feel unforgiven but that is just not the truth. I am the one who keeps bringing it up and God is saying that those sins have already been forgiven. Do you fall into the same boat as I do? Do you sometimes look at the mistakes of your past and think that God is holding them over your head? I assure you that he is not. We are indeed forgiven by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. By the blood of Christ we have remission of our sins. Let the past remain in the past.