Words to Stand On - Day Six

Do you have things in your past tormenting you? Do certain memories play over and over in your mind?

I've been there. When I was newly married, my husband worked a lot of hours which left me plenty of time spent alone. I began to dwell on some of the ugly things I experienced when growing up as a child of an alcoholic.

Make no mistake, I truly loved my dad and had forgiven him for things he had done. I didn't want to have those memories!

I had the good sense to go to the Lord and ask Him to help me with this problem. I sensed God leading me to study two scriptures:

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:5

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Phil. 3:13

Every time my mind started to travel down the road of bad memories, I learned to stop. You can't keep the memory from existing but you can keep from dwelling on it. When a bad thought came, I cast it down saying, "God knows my father repented and now he is a new man. The man who did those things is dead, a new loving father exists in his place."

It really didn't take all that long. By not feeding on those ugly things, the memories eventually went away. Today, I really have to rack my brain if there is something I wanted to remember about those old days.

Paul said in Philippians "this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind." If there is one thing you need to do, it is to let the past go. In Paul's case, the things in his past might have been considered good by some people. He had honor and prestige among his peers. Yet when he became a Christian, he saw the past trying to reach out and grab him holding him back from where he wanted to be in Christ.

Whether you have an ugly past or precious memories, you can't live there. You must go on. Let the past go. When those thoughts come, and they will, banish them immediately. Pray, asking God to help you forget, and then focus on the things ahead of you - abundant life, the joy of knowing Jesus and our ultimate goal, Heaven.