I have a friend who allows his past to continue to hold him back. He’s unable to move beyond the failure, and move his life toward success.

Another friend swapped one addiction for a different one. She knows it, but is still entrapped.

One friend puts up a big bravado-front, like everything is all honky-dory, but it isn’t. Inside he’s falling apart.

Maybe you have friends like this, too. Maybe you are like my friends.

While our pains are real, and the hurt runs deep, we trap ourselves in shackles of our own making when we refuse to forgive ourselves. Forgive others. Or when we continue to heap guilt upon ourselves. We believe we deserve to feel bad. After all, we messed up. The past looms, unforgiving.

If we are children of the One True Living God, this kind of thinking is detrimental.

We’ve been redeemed. Washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our Messiah. Past mistakes, mess-ups, failures are behind us when we claim him as our Lord and Savior.

Others may try to keep reminding us of the times we got off track, but that’s their problem. Not ours. We need to turn a deaf ear to them. (Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t extend restitution or ask for forgiveness when needed. I’m taking about when we keep beating ourselves up over stuff we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over.)

Most of what we do is learned behaviors. Maybe it’s time to let go of the worthless things we’ve picked up along the path of life, and grab onto the Truth. Time to tell the ghosts that haunt us to hit the road. Get lost. Move on. So we can be the person God created us to be.

Christ fought our battle for us, and He won. We aren’t made worthy by anything we’ve done, or ever could do. It’s all about Jesus.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way, a way passed down from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb. 1 Peter 1:18-19 (NCV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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