Are there things in your past that you feel like are holding you back?
Most of us have some things that took place in our pasts that we wish we could forget. Perhaps the bad parts of your past involve your own bad decisions, and now you wake up every day dealing with the shame and regret that those decisions have cause.
Maybe you’ve been a victim of people abusing you, abandoning you, spreading misinformation about you, or doing something else that has caused you harm. Whatever the reason for the pain that you’re dealing with regarding your past, ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to move past your past and embrace the future that God has for you today.
Pray These Verses
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
“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.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 (NIV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)
Now that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Pray This Prayer
Heavenly Father, the pain associated with my past often feels like it’s more than I can deal with. Help me to forget the former things and to stop dwelling on the past. That’s so hard to do when my past is marred with so much pain, regret, shame, and self-condemnation.
It’s hard to stop dwelling on the things in my past that have left me carrying the scars of friends and family who have betrayed me and gone out of their ways to hurt me. However, I know that my position in Your family means that I am a new creation, and the old things have gone.
You have reconciled me to Yourself and given me the ministry of reconciliation. I can’t effectively share reconciliation with others if I am still tethered to my past, so help me shake free. I will forget the things behind me and live my life in a pursuit of the things that You have set before me. I will press on toward my future because I know that You have a plan for me. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Thank God
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the ability to get past my past. Thank You for being a God who is focused on the future. Most of all, thank You for having a plan for my future instead of being focused on the things that have taken place in my past. In Christ’s name, Amen.