If your home is like mine, your walls are adorned with pictures of your family members. Some of them are of family who died before I was born, like my mom's mom, Fanny Stevenson. She was from Winnsboro, SC, and my father loved her as the mom he never had. There are pictures of my parents after their marriage during World War II, reflecting a younger couple filled with hope, love and a future together. There are wedding pictures of Steve and Vicki Mentzer and the joy of our marriage--Stefani. These pictures represent the actions, intentions, and lives of God's creation.
“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. (Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)
Believers often wonder why we cannot forgive and forget. Perhaps what we need to see is the forgetting does not refer to the memory, but forgetting to punish those, including yourself, of past sins and indiscretions. It is the memory we will think about today.
Why is it my sins are always before my face as David said in Psalm 51? (Psalm 51:3 NIV) I have a vivid memory of my past sins and their overwhelming weight until I remember they are gone from my back and laid upon Christ. Now, these memories have a new purpose as they function like blinking caution lights of dangers. These pictures stand as a memorial of the salvation power of Christ in my life and the leadership of the Holy Spirit down a new path. Isaiah says I should not dwell on the past because God is doing a new thing in me. He is changing the desolate wilderness of my heart and the wasteland of my life.
Changing the pictures of the past into visions of the future:
“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. (Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)
Believers often wonder why we cannot forgive and forget. Perhaps what we need to see is the forgetting does not refer to the memory, but forgetting to punish those, including yourself, of past sins and indiscretions. It is the memory we will think about today.
Why is it my sins are always before my face as David said in Psalm 51? (Psalm 51:3 NIV) I have a vivid memory of my past sins and their overwhelming weight until I remember they are gone from my back and laid upon Christ. Now, these memories have a new purpose as they function like blinking caution lights of dangers. These pictures stand as a memorial of the salvation power of Christ in my life and the leadership of the Holy Spirit down a new path. Isaiah says I should not dwell on the past because God is doing a new thing in me. He is changing the desolate wilderness of my heart and the wasteland of my life.
Changing the pictures of the past into visions of the future:
- Daily renewing of my mind to forget my past
- See how God is doing a new thing as evidenced by increasing resistance to the Flesh
- Allow these changes to be an influence to others for the Kingdom of God
- Remember Jesus said he is coming back for me to be with him--what a promise.
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