One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13
If you’ve got some years under your belt,
you have some stuff behind you.
The more years…, the more stuff.
Technically, I have almost 56 years of stuff built up in my
“look behind” closet
and a bunch of that stuff is not pretty, not pretty at all.
Paul taught us some valuable lessons in the book of Philippians
about backward living and rearview mirror driving.
The just of his instruction was…don’t.
Having said that, we can all agree that our past times don’t simply disappear because we’ve walked a few steps away from them.
Many of us live with haunting memories, grave injustice,
or deep regrets hidden in yesterdays closet.
Each luring us to open the door for one more peek.
Although we are never to go digging in our old dried up wells
for trash from the past there are times when God will bring something to our remembrance.
If He does, then we can be sure, it is for a good reason
and with a better end in mind.
Contrary to the enemies assault on our minds
to relive unpleasant and even unbearable memories
which ultimately bring feelings of
guilt, shame, depression, and condemnation….
God’s whisper in our ear to revisit something in our past
is to ultimately bring release, freedom, restoration, and deliverance.
There are three reasons that I have found that God will tell me to return to my “look behind” closet. Let’s take a peek.
1. God wants me to go to the next level of forgiveness.
If God opens the door to past hurts and bids me enter in
it can be because He desires me to again look
my previous situation directly in the eye
and then examine my heart to see if I am up-to-date with forgiveness.
Much of my past hurts, like yours, are the crummy stuff
people have done to us along the way.
Mean, unjust, unfair, unthinkable, unexpected stuff
that screwed us up or screwed us over.
We can walk in levels of forgiveness,
pleasing in the sight of our Lord,
and as time rolls on He can reveal to us
a deeper level of forgiveness that He is requiring.
It can’t hurt to seek the Lord when past hurts repeatedly come up
and ask God, “Is there something more I need to forgive here?”
2. God wants me to repent.
If the door to previous life stuff is cracked open by God
maybe there is something inside that He wants us to repent of.
Maybe we weren’t in the correct frame of mind
back when we first went through it
and we simply weren’t ready to be shown.
But today we are in a new place and God wants to take us back
with a fresh perspective so that we can repent of our sin in the matter
and get washed clean and fresh to go forward.
It can’t hurt to seek the Lord when past hurts repeatedly come up
and ask God, “Is there something here I need to repent of?”
3. God wants to teach me something.
Sometimes God helps us look backward for a minute
so that He can teach us something
that we couldn’t learn any another way.
Experience is a wonderful counselor.
God may pull back the curtain on some old stuff
to make way from some new better stuff.
Could be He wants to enlighten us with
a better approach next time,
a smarter way in the future,
or a more reasonable response down the road.
Gleaning from past happenings can propel us
into a future where we do it better the next time around.
It can’t hurt to seek the Lord when past hurts repeatedly come up
and ask God, “Is there something here You are trying to teach me?”
So…if doors to your past have been reopening lately
take a few minutes to ask those three questions.
Bear in mind that the enemy does not want you
to forgive, repent, or do it better next time.
That’s not his plan for any of the doors that God may reopen.
But When God initiates the open doors to your past
He will go in with you, look around, and lead you into
forgiveness,
or repentance,
or smarts for the next time.
Then with a smile, He will close the door
and you two will walk away together hand in hand
more intimate than ever before for having shared
the contents of that “look behind” door.