We all have a past, some pasts are good and some pasts are no so good.   In our past we may have been a not so nice person or maybe we were a nice person but suffered at the hands of someone not so nice.  Whatever our pasts hold we do not need to let the past hold us. Letting go of the past is sometimes easier said than done.  Pasts can keep coming up. No matter how deeply they are buried many years later we can still feel the pain or the guilt as if it was just yesterday.  Our pasts will always be there they can not be changed.  Well meaning people will say “you have to just let it go, its in the past look to the future”,  like you can just crumple it up and toss it away in the trash like yesterdays news.

The past is yesterdays news but how do we go about crumpling it and eventually tossing it? I am not sure it can ever be done.

But what I do know is…

God loves us no no matter what our past is. If we caused it he loves us if we did not cause it he loves us, all of us no matter what.

If a friend is needed He is always there, I can always talk to him he will listen.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart – Jeremiah 29:12-13 

He is always on my side, with him no matter how bad it is without him it can be a whole lot worse facing it alone.

If the LORD had not been on our side let Israel say if the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth – Psalm 124

Life can be so hard sometimes. We always see others as having it better than us but in truth we all have stuff, burdons that we carry around, they may be from the past of maybe something is going on at this very moment.

I would like to finish with a verse that keeps coming up for me these past few days.

Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

It was written by Paul, Paul used to be a man named Saul with a pretty bad past.  He was a terrible mean man who persecuted Christians. He was later redeemed, walked away from his past and went on to be a man who lived his life for God.  You can read about him in Acts 9  if you would like to know more about him.  Its some pretty fascinating reading.

You may not be able to let go of the past yet.. but  Keep your eyes on the prize for which God has called you heavenward for .. Keep your eyes on Jesus… at this very moment you may feel like you are drowning, He is throwing you a life ring will you grab it?  Hold on tight to him, let him save you 🙂