“It’s ridiculous to keep dredging up the past so you can weep over it again and again.  You can’t change what happened in your past. Forgive those who have wronged you and release it!  Who didn’t come from a dysfunctional family? Unless your entire family was born again with full knowledge of God and lived by it, you were dysfunctional.  It’s time to quit living in the past because the past never sees the future. Make up your mind, if Jesus is real and His Word is truth, then it ought to work in your life.” Jesse Duplantis

 

I watched a lady in front of me as she checked out her face in the rearview mirror. Suddenly the car in front of her slammed on their brakes, I honked just to alert her because she wasn’t looking. She narrowly missed as her brakes squealed to a stop. When you drive, do you look out the windshield or are you so focused on the rearview mirror that you lose sight of what’s ahead of you. I believe that this is a distraction we can’t afford to indulge in, especially in this day. Revelation 16:15 says, “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

 

“It’s time to quit living in the past because the past never sees the future.” We can’t undo what’s done! Ask God to forgive you and thank Him for His blood that covered it, then move on! Don’t waste time with regret. That is just a tool to keep you where you are, focused on how you screwed up. When you stay focused on you, you’re not focused on others and that’s exactly where your enemy wants you. Get your mind off yourself and onto His plans, His purposes for you-serving and loving others.

 

Hebrews 12:1-2 ERV; “We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall.  We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.”

 

Did you catch that? Run the race thats BEFORE you, not behind you. Never stop focusing on Jesus. His example shows us what to do, how to speak, how to react, how to serve, how to love and most of all, how to win. Do I ever mess up? Yes! Do I have regrets? Absolutely, but I can’t live there. I can’t exist in that place. I can’t swim in the mud. I must ask Him to wash me off and move on, trusting Jesus’ work on the cross to be enough. I ask that He sharpen my hearing, hone my vision, give me more stamina to complete the race I’m on. I can’t run backwards, I can’t drive looking in the rearview mirror. I must be alert and watchful for I know my adversary runs around like a roaring lion seeking to devour me. Thankfully, I’m safe under the shadow of the Almighty’s Wings.

 

I hope that next time you’re tempted to stop and focus on all the stupid things you’ve done that you remember, it’s just a distraction to keep you from moving forward. Be quick to repent and trust God to take care of that. Ask Him to strengthen you as you surrender it to Him. Know that He has you covered and He has that covered. Let His love be enough.