Chances are you’ve met at least one person in your life who likes to live in the past. Day after day they revisit old wounds and relive past tragedies. They remember in great detail every time they were mistreated.
These people often struggle to find meaningful relationships since they’re haunted by memories of trusted people who abused them. Not only is it hard for people like this to trust other people, but it’s hard for them to trust God – from their perspective, they can only see that God didn’t answer that prayer they prayed 20 years ago.
Do you know someone like this? What do you say to people who are so bound by the heartaches of their past that they miss the great plans God has for their life today?
Tell Them About the Prodigal Son
The life of the Prodigal Son reached a turning point when he “came to himself” while feeding pigs (Luke 15:17). He realized he was reaping the bitter fruit of his poor choices. If he stayed on his current path, his life would surely continue to wallow in the pigpen of yesterday’s faults, failures, and hurts.
The turning point can’t come until they submit to the power of God’s love and let Him turn them in a new direction.
Leaving the Past Behind
If you know someone who is living in the past, who has not yet felt the embrace of God’s loving power, why not share these powerful principles contained in these brief passages of Scripture:
1. God declares His desire to give us His New Beginnings.
2. He desires to give us a “new song,” so we can “sing His praises from the end of the earth.”
3. He wants to stir our hearts to be “aware” of the new things He’s doing in our lives.
4. We are told not to “call to mind” or “ponder things of the past.”
5. No matter what kinds of difficult seasons we’ve been facing, God wants to “make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”
When time is spent meditating on these wonderful promises from God, the devil’s pigpen can be left behind and eyes can be opened to experience the power of God’s purpose and provision.
*Past sins – all of them – have been covered by the blood of Jesus. If you know someone living in the past, please share this article with them. Encourage them to forget what has happened in the past so their New Beginning can start TODAY!*
