November 17, 2012
Forget the Past
by Charles R. Swindoll
If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creature,
the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Some of the unhappiest people I've ever known are living their lives looking over their shoulder.
What a waste! Nothing back there can be changed.
What's in the past? Only two things: great attainments and accomplishments that could either make us proud by reliving them or indifferent by resting on them . . . or failures and defeats that cannot help but arouse feelings of guilt and shame. Why in the world would anyone want to return to that quagmire? I've never been able to figure that one out.
By recalling those inglorious, ineffective events of yesterday, our energy is sapped for facing the demands of today. Rehearsing those wrongs, now forgiven in grace, derails and demoralizes us. There are few joy stealers more insidious than past memories that haunt our minds. . . .
Forget the past!
Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way (Nashville: J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
