Part of the fun of a new year is a new start, but you can't start new and fresh if you pull all of 2008's baggage along with you.
How many of you have some skeletons in your closets?
We all do… some might be more ‘rattly’ than others, but the truth is, we all have a past. We all have done things we are not proud of – toward ourselves, toward other people and toward God. If no one knows about it - at least, not many – then, many times, we are content to shove it in our closet and jam the door closed, and hope no one ever does find out about it.
As Dr. Phil says, “how’s that been working out for you? Usually it doesn’t. We live with guilt and condemnation all the time.
So, what can we do about the skeletons?
In his book, "Reaching for the Invisible God," Phil Yancey says: "I know of no better way to treat a skeleton than to bring it into the open and expose it for what it is: not something to hide or fear, but a hard structure on which living tissue may grow."
Bring it out in the open? Let people know? I’m in enough trouble right now with what people already know. Expose more?
1 John 1:9 (New International Version)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Open the door to your closet, pull your skeleton out, confess your mistake, your sin to God, allow Him to wash it clean with the blood of Jesus Christ. The scripture tells us that he will cast our sin into a sea of forgetfulness – that he will remember it no more.
In Philippians 3:13, Paul says, forgetting those things which are behind,…, I press toward the mark of the high calling.
How many of us would love to be able to just wipe those skeletons out? Wish we’d never done the thing or at least that we could just FORGET IT?
We may not THINK about them for a long time, but we really never forget them, do we? How could Paul say forget the things in the past?
This verse means that once something is under the blood, been forgiven (God Himself doesn’t even remember it), then we need to LEAVE it behind us. Don’t pack it in your suitcase and bring it with you to your new life in Christ. Don’t keep bringing it up, brooding over how bad you were, what a horrible mistake you made, re-telling the story to others, re-living it over and over.
I’m not suggesting that you pretend it never happened and that you’re perfect. NO!! Don’t ever forget that you are a sinner, saved by grace. In fact, many times we can use our past experiences as a witness, a testimony, a HELP for others going through something similar, if we let them know the problem and the solution ( i.e. - I was this way, but Jesus came into my life and has made me this way) Show the whole picture, but don’t continue to talk only about the sin and the failure.
FORGIVE YOUR PAST – FORGET YOUR PAST AND MOVE ON
: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
In 2009, Let's reach for those things that are in store for us and leave those things that are behind us. Let's start 2009 with a fresh new slate, wiped clean by the blood of Jesus Christ.
