Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: LEAVE (11/16/23)
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TITLE: What Is Behind Is Behind | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Fahy
11/23/23 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
I played head games. I would bring up a failed relationship and start the game. Why didn’t I say this when she said that. I would change the entire scene to a favorable outcome for me. These head games drove me crazy. I knew this thinking was insane. But it provided a temporary relief from the world outside of me that I didn’t know how to cope with. I feared asking for help. I felt it would be better to waddle in my misery with the wrong decision and its consequences than ask for help. One bad decision led to another and then another. They were stacking up and I needed a backpack to get around. It got heavier over the years and slowed me down. I saw and acted all my life through the past that I was hanging onto. My life was one cloudy day after another. When I wanted to escape reality, I would pull up one of my mistakes from the past. Which one did I want to play in? What will make me feel better right now? Change something from the past for instance saying no to that first drink or relationship.
I carried this habit into my Christian walk. I was relying on these thoughts from the past for peace and comfort. I believed the only one I was hurting was me. Later, I learned I also hurt my Almighty God. My real peace and comfort come from Jesus. He is the only one who has real peace to offer no matter what the secular world wants us to believe. Diving into the past brought me temporary peace and happiness prevailed for a moment. Little did I know every time I dwelled in the past I was moving away from the Lord. This lasted some time even after I accepted Jesus as my Savior. After accepting Jesus, I believed this habitual sin would leave me immediately. To my surprise and disappointment, it did not. I believed once I became a christian my sins would leave me. I thought I would be perfect.
The more I studied God’s word I found out this sin nature would be with me until my last breath. The blood of Jesus freed me from being a slave to sin. Accepting Jesus, as my Lord and Savior, I have received His Spirit. The Holy Spirit can direct me in how to live if I let Him. He will guide me down the path of righteousness when I have an open heart to do God’s will. This sin nature must be surrendered to God. Paul writes in Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh”. It took me awhile to leave the past where it belongs behind me. The Holy Spirit has the power to remove any stronghold I am holding onto. My responsibility is to say no to temptation and yes to Jesus.
We as Christians must build our relationship with the Lord with our hearts. We must forget the past and look to the future. In Isaiah 43:18,19 The Lord told Isaiah, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” The way the Lord promises us will elude us if we carry the past into tomorrow. We have a choice. We can live in the darkness of the past or walk in the light of the future the Lord holds for us. Leave what is behind…behind. So, we may enjoy what the Lord has to bless us with in the present.
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Excellent! As I read your beautiful piece, I related well with your experience. That is what salvation, sanctification and justification by the indwelling Holy Spirit engenders. And the outcome? Being Christ-like. Well-done. Thank you.