The year of 2023 is soon to be history, and 2024 is a mystery. Therefore, let the past be the past! Sometimes we hinder our blessings by looking back. You cannot move forward if your head is always facing “the rear view mirror.” Let go of it! There are times when you will have to make reference to your past for one reason or another, but don’t get stuck there, singing your “Should-a, would-a, could-a’s”! It is hard to let go of the past, but progress will never be a reality if you don’t find a way to let go. Look at this profound, encouraging advice from the Word about “letting go”: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV). God will do a new thing for you if you just let go of that rear view mirror, and let God…
When you hold on to your past, you are telling God, “I can’t give you full trust.” You cannot be a part-time Christian, trusting God some of the time. God wants all of you! Exodus 20:5 (ESV) says, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God…” Sometimes we try to fight our battles alone, but that is impossible. The battle belongs to God. The devil wants us to remain stuck in the mud, our past, but show him that he is a liar. Satan is real, so you better recognize that! Remaining in the past is nothing except a trap. The next time that you feel stuck in your past, read this anonymously written story about how birds let go. It makes a lot of sense, comparing our being stuck in the past to the birds stuck on a branch.
“In exactly the same way that birds have to find the courage to let go of a branch in order to actually fly, we must also let go of our emotional branches if we are to experience the exhilaration of soaring to our highest potential in life! The branches we hold on to are our innermost attachments: our beliefs, our bad habits and those memories which keep us stuck. And then there are the outer attachments: they are people, possessions, positions and privileges - to name but a few. We must be aware that as long as we hold onto them, we will actually live in fear (of letting go and loss), and we will never feel the freedom that we all deserve. Once you become aware of those birds and the initial courage they display when they let go of their branches just prior to flying, you will be capable of experiencing life in a totally different way.
This can be your new recipe of how to live a life where you learn to let go of one branch at a time, and learn to have new experiences, one at a time. The birds have found that by letting go of one branch, they are then able to spend the rest of their lives trying many other branches, one branch at a time, and they can enjoy the view from each new vantage point. What a way to live! Are you actually flying and soaring in your life, or are you stuck on one branch, resenting others as they fly past? You can do it; go on and just try letting go!”
Have a blessed and prosperous New Year, and never leave home without Him!
