Something New

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)

Forget. Don’t dwell on the past. Words that remind us there is great freedom in letting go of yesterday. Sadly, many people live in a wasteland of “what ifs” and “if onlys,” wishing they could undo the past.

In his devotional book, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, author Paul David Tripp states: “… all of us should daily celebrate the grace that frees us from the regret of the past. This freedom is not the freedom of retraction or denial. It’s not the freedom of rewriting our history. No, it’s the freedom of forgiving and transforming grace. This grace welcomes me to live with hope in the present because it frees me to leave my past behind. All of what I look back on and would like to redo has been fully covered by the blood of Jesus. I no longer need to carry the burden of the past on my shoulders, so I am free to fully give myself to what God has called me to in the here and now.” (1)

            So much time is wasted, too much joy sacrificed, dredging up the past. It’s time to shut the door on former things and move beyond the regrets and haunting remorse. God urges us to lay those self-recriminations at the foot of the cross, leave them there, and move onward. Tomorrow is a new day with new mercies and new opportunities to take another step forward.

You cannot grab ahold of God’s promises for the future if you’re still holding on to yesterday’s regrets. Every day you don’t look back at the past and its recriminations is a day you make headway. Your past has been erased. Live in the freedom of grace.

(1) Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.