Let Go of the Past

Well, here we are. A happy and blessed new year to you. But before we can step into this new year with gusto, with that sense of anticipation of what it'll bring, we need to let go of the regrets of the past. Absolutely, we do! In early 20th-century China, Empress Dowager Longyu signed the abdication of the last emperor, ending over two thousand years of imperial rule. It was the right thing for peace, but she never recovered. Trapped in the Forbidden City she withdrew, clung to her rituals, and mourned her lost grandeur. Regret devoured her. She died just months later, broken and forgotten. Here was a woman who could have shaped a new role, a new future, but chose instead to bury herself in the past. The truth is that regret doesn't knock loudly, it whispers. And if you listen for too long, it'll lock you in a palace with no doors. Isaiah 43:18-19 So don't remember what happened in earlier times. Don't think about what happened a long time ago, because I am doing something new! Now you will grow like a new plant. Surely you know this is true. I will even make a road in the desert, and rivers will flow through that dry land. No amount of regret can change what happened in years gone by. It'll only destroy your present and rob you of your future, of the life that God sent Jesus His Son for you to live in all its abundance, no matter what the world throws at you. It's a new year. God is doing something new! Surely you know it's true. That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.