The Sins of the Past

An individual haunted by the sins of his past is likened to a man running a race backwards. Everyone and everything passes him by. God’s promises of good fortune, spiritual success, and a future awaits him as he struggles to get back on course.

If we are plagued by past sins, we need only to dismiss those thoughts as quickly as possible. If left to linger, they will, like an epidemic, wipe out all hope for a brighter tomorrow. In Jeremiah 3:34 God says, "I will forgive their iniquity and I will (personally) remember their sins no more." My friends, the phrase "no more" means exactly that. If we continue to dwell on our past, then we are, according to scripture, remembering what God has forgotten.

The agenda of the adversary is to trick us into living in our past. But the scripture warns us of its devastating consequences. Luke 17:32 reminds us to remember Lot’s wife and her ultimate destruction as a result of looking back at her past. What did she lose by looking back? Everything. What will you lose if you look back? Everything as well.

Mourning over the loss of a loved one, as it was in the Old Testament Scripture, was only permitted for a period of thirty days. After that time, the period of grief ended. But friends, even thirty minutes is to long to mourn over past sins. Why? Because dwelling on the past will alter the future.

Excessive mourning and self-pity prevents us from moving forward into the future that God has planned for us. When one thing, circumstance, or event in our lives ends, God always has a new beginning. The enemy wants to stop us before we reach the point of new beginnings.

Why is the future important for us? Because it was Jesus’ purpose for coming here. As Christ looked to the future, so must we. He did not allow His past (Gethsemane) to rob him of his future (Sonship), For the scripture declares that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, and despised (ignored) the shame of the past. Now he has taken his seat at the right hand of His Father, depicting an eternal bond which will never be again be broken.

While enduring our cross, we must remember that there is no such thing as a drive-through breakthrough or a microwave maturity. If we want the prize, we must endure. Endurance is the key to victory and over coming our past.

We must refuse (at all cost) to quit. The refusal to quit must also be accompanied by an attitude of not complaining.

Complaining only magnifies the problems, steal our faith and causes us to give up. In John 5: 1-7, the writer tells us of a man who wailed at the pool filled with self-pity and a complaining spirit. His entire future rested at the pool. Self-pity robs us of the strength to endure. It is also a very destructive emotion with dangerous consequences. An individual overcome with self-pity tends to hate the blessings of others. Instead of finding a means to solve their problems, they make excuses for their failure or lack of progress.

I call this the "pool mentality". "I have no one to put me in when the waters are stirred". Jesus’ reply to him was, "Will thou be made whole". In order for restoration to occur, we must operate without excuses. One can never get up on the outside until he allows the inner man to rise up. Renewal of the inner man brings restoration to the entire body.

Like the man at the pool, many believers are allowing excuses to block them from moving into victory. No one can guarantee that there won’t be opposition, but when it comes, exercise the fruit of endurance. Look to the right source for help.

The man at the pool didn’t receive any help until he tapped into the source, and neither will we. The past is gone. We must allow those memories to fade, otherwise we will never move into victory.

In order to receive what God has for us, we must forget those things which are behind (past) and reach for the things which are before (future). Christ is the Source. Get hooked up.