Let Go of the Past
Joshua 5:9 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "You were slaves in Egypt, and this made you ashamed. But today I have taken away that shame."
There’s a really important principle in life that many people just don’t get. And it’s this lack of understanding that sadly, is robbing them of their present and destroying any hope they may have had for their future.
So – what’s the principle? It is, quite simply, this: that you can’t move forward and take hold of all that God has for you, until you’ve dealt with the past and let it go.
How many people are carrying around regrets from the past, either from things that they’ve done, or things that were done to them through no fault of their own? And those regrets are weighing them down, distorting their view of both themselves and of their circumstances. To put it bluntly, those regrets are robbing them of their enjoyment of life today and destroying any hope they may have had, for tomorrow.
So, let me ask you – what regrets from the past, are still hanging like a dark cloud over your life today? What is it from the past, that you haven’t let go of yet?
The nation of Israel was exiled in slavery in Egypt for over four hundred and fifty years. That’s a long time. Generation after generation they saw themselves just as slaves. Until one day, God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to “let my people go”. Through some great deeds of power, they escaped miraculously. And after forty years in the wilderness they stood on the threshold of the Promised Land ready to enter into God’s promise of blessing.
But before they could cross over the Jordan River and take a hold of that Promised Land – just think of that, the land God had promised to them and ordained for them – God had to deal with their past; the horrible things that had happened to them in slavery in Egypt. Because if they’d still had that slave mentality, if they were still living in the regrets of the past, they could never have conquered the Promised Land.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “You were slaves in Egypt, and this made you ashamed. But today I have taken away that shame.” (Joshua 5:9)
It’s something that God did for them back then. It’s something that God will do for you here and now.
You can’t take hold of the future, if you’re still hanging on to the past!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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