Matthew 26:41 – Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
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I know that there are a lot of things that I have done in my life that I will always regret. The people that I have hurt through my own means seem to be the hardest things to forgive myself for. Words could never describe how sorry that I am for the person that I was, but I have prayed for forgiveness and I know I am not that person anymore. That is something we all have to remember and accept each day. We are not as we were. We put off the old person that we were and are as new!
Learning to move on from the past and seeking God for peace is one of the most important aspects about being spiritually self-sufficient. Some people are in church today but in their minds or hearts are still sitting in a church service that hurt them 10-20 years ago. Others are not able to be in fellowship with one another because or religious traditions or doctrines that they cannot seem to agree on, which in turn leads to grudges that seem to never end. We have to begin to learn to break these self-created bonds that hold us down. God can set us free from all of these burdens!
As we commit our lives to God and become new creatures in Him, there comes a time in your life where you have to stop looking back and start looking forward. Make today a day that you do not reflect on something to make yourself feel bad or worse than you already do. If anything, take those negative feelings and give them to God in prayer; let God begin to work those things for your good. Stop looking in the history books and begin to write a new chapter in yours. Move on and do the good works of the Lord!
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Put Into Practice:
Let us do an applied example of how wonderful it is that we have been forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. On a piece of paper, write down with a pencil at least three things that you have done today that you wish that you did not. After you have wrote them down, turn the pencil around and erase them from the page. As you are erasing them, know that you can simulate this erasing process simply by having a humble prayer before God, asking for forgiveness of what you have done. You do not have to walk around with guilt and shame. It is rather simple when you get right down to it: ask for forgiveness, let God lead you in how not to do it the next time and move on to better things by having victory over the past!