Philippians 3:13 (AMP)
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”
Oh friends of Jesus, this one is a hard one for me but I’m bringing it out anyways cause I mean, I’m really writing these to kick my butt. I’m sure you’ve got it all together! Wink!
Put your flip’n past behind you, would you already?!?!?! Totally yelling at myself. Here’s the thing and this is what I’m slowly learning. My past is not gonna disappear, I know, shocker. It takes me a while to get things, ha. Also, if I continuously let it control me, I can’t move forward into a brighter future, which is really what we all want, right? Ok, that’s it. Devo done. Just do it. Joking! When have you EVER known me to not at least write like 500 words because I always have more deep thoughts by Heather Follett.
Here’s where I’m at with it. It’s not going anywhere and honestly, it will keep coming up because different triggers in life will cause emotions from those wounds to rear their ugly head but it’s what you do with it. Do you decide to dive in and see where it’s coming from, how to shift it to a healing place? OR do you decide, I’m just gonna stir in this icky place and play victim. That is SO HARD for me to type. I’m such a, stand up, brush off the dirt, and let’s move forward, EXCEPT when it comes to my past sometimes. Yes, we are victims of whatever pain or dark situations that have happened back then but that does not have to define us and we should not stay there. We have the freedom in Christ to heal the wounds and allow our past to stay where it should, in the past. If we hold onto the wounds or negative emotions that the past stirs, it stops us from opening up the doors in our hearts and lives to move forward. I so so get the fact that honestly, it’s comfortable right? This pain that we have experienced for so long seems to almost be a blanket. It keeps us safe and warm yet guess what, when it starts pouring rain and you have this ‘blanket’ on, it gets a bit heavy doesn’t it. Doesn’t feel so nice and warm anymore. It’s time to live free of the weight and give permission to ourselves to move forward. The sweet presence of beautiful days await us.
One thing that helps me is constantly speaking out loud or writing down what I need to untangle from my emotions of my past when they come up. Speak it, write it down, do something to get those thoughts out of your head. Release it so that Jesus can come in and start doin’ His thang.
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
Wounded to Warrior 