Is dwelling on the past stealing my joy?

Here's our Precious Prodigal post for September 9, 2014: Is dwelling on the past stealing my joy? #letitgo #moveon Please "Share" using this "ShortLink" = http://bit.ly/WDCzib

Philippians 3:13 "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before..."

Before we begin to look at how dwelling on the past can steal our joy, we need to look at our part in that past. Even if we’re not the prodigals, we probably had an active part in the chaos. Trying to move forward without addressing our part is like putting air in a flat tire that has a nail in it. It won’t work unless we first repair the tire.

Without resolving the past to the best of our ability, we’re going to be stuck there. Some people in recovery programs do that with the 12 Steps. Others may do that with a therapist, pastor or spiritual counselor. However it’s done, we won’t be able to move forward without coming to terms with our past. Even when we’ve done that, there are still a few ways we can get stuck.

The first is dwelling on the bad times. Perhaps you can’t let go of what you did wrong, and your heart, like David’s, continues to cry out, “My sin is ever before me.” (Psalm 51:3) If you have confessed it and have done your best to make it right, it’s time to let it go.

Think about the person you love most in the world. Their heart is broken over something they’ve done, and they’ve tried to make it right. Now they’re asking for forgiveness. Do you give it? Then forgive yourself too and move on. Remembering so you won’t do the same thing again is great. Beating yourself up with it is useless and destructive.

Then there are the people who have hurt you. The world is filled with broken people. Unfortunately, those people may be the ones closest to us…our children, our spouses, our friends, and even our parents. Whatever harm they did, you can’t seem to forgive it and let it go.

I’m not minimizing the hurts; I’ve had plenty of them too. But what that person did to us a month ago, a year ago, or 25 years ago will consume us if we let it. They may have hurt us once, but we’re hurting ourselves countless times when we replay it over and over in our minds. Let it go and move one.

Remembering better times can be a good thing if it gives us courage and reminds us that God is faithful. However, if longing for the past is our way of complaining about our present, we could begin to sound like Job when he said, "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me" (Job 29:2)

Maybe your past was better, but that was then and this is now. God hasn’t made a mistake in allowing you to be where you are, and you’re only making yourself miserable by longing for what “used to be.” And God is “preserving” you now just as He did then.

It isn’t always easy to see each day as a gift, is it? But yesterday is gone, and all we have is today. So whether our yesterdays were good or bad, it isn’t helping us to pitch a tent and camp there. The only thing it’s going to do is steal our joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if, just for today, we let go of the past and instead looked at what God is doing and is going to do?