I Need to Let Go, Part 1

The events of the last week and a half have brought me back to a lesson God has been teaching me for a long time: that I need to let go of things.

Are you the kind of person who likes to hold on to things? I have a habit of holding onto my notes and papers from college and seminary. I still have them all in file folders. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I have referred back to them, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of them. They’re sitting in my office.

Many of us have things we like to hold on to. If you are not like this, chances are you know someone who is….you may even have married one! The problem with not wanting to get rid of things is that you start to run out of space after a while. This reality is called “clutter.” Sometimes my office gets so cluttered with things that need put away, given away, or stored away that it becomes difficult for me to find the time or space for the things that need done.

There is a spiritual parallel there. Many of us struggle with spiritual clutter. This clutter is made up of the regrets, misgivings, hurts, and failures that make up our past. Even our successes and achievements can become spiritual clutter. We know that we are forgiven of our past in our head but we often have trouble letting it go.

We can and should let go of our past because God has let go of our past. Our past does not in any way influence our position before God. Our position was determined by Christ and Christ alone. When God forgave me and you, He forgave us for everything, no matter how dirty, low, or dark your past might have been. And, just as importantly, when God accepted you, all the good and wonderful things you have done, did not in the least figure into His acceptance of you at all.

From the moment we came under God’s grace we became new creatures, with new hearts, we became citizens of heaven, co-heirs with Christ with all the rights and privileges of being a brother or sister of Jesus Christ. At that moment, God freed us from the tyranny our past. Its power and authority over us was broken.

Someone once said, “The past is valuable as a guidepost, but dangerous if used as a hitching post.” God wants us to remember the past so that we learn from it. All that He wants us to know of Him was written in the past and recorded in the history of Israel and the days of the Apostles. But He does not want us trapped by the past.

Let me share two reasons why I believe God has freed us from the past.

First, we need to let go of our past so we can focus on our work for today. When we are focused on the past we can’t focus on what we need to be doing today. When the past ceases to be a guidepost and becomes a hitching post, we can’t move forward. We become tied down. We are immobilized. When we are fretting about the past we can’t be listening to God’s voice speaking to us in the present.

If we are not giving God our attention, we end up missing the things He wants us to do. It is dangerous to limit what God is going to do among us and with us based on our past. In our call to worship we read that God does not want us trapped in the past. In Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT) God says, But forget all that–it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Paul says in Ephesians 3:20 (NIV) that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. But if all we are thinking about is the past, we are kept from having hope in those promises.

Second, we need to let go of our past so that we keep our focus on where we are going. Several years ago while I was crossing a street, I saw a minivan coming that did not appear to see me. I started running for the curb but I was not fast enough. The minivan clipped my leg as I was running by and sent me rolling up onto the sidewalk. Thankfully, all I was left with was a good sized raspberry right below my knee where I was hit.

Fortunately, the driver stopped. The driver, it turned out, was thinking about an argument that she had earlier in the day with her husband. She admitted that she was preoccupied about that and was not paying attention to the road. When we are focused on our past we aren’t looking where we are going.