LAMENTATIONS 3:22-24 – The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
THEME OF THE DAY. NEW DAY. NEW START. All of us have a past. I am not referring to our physical past. I mean a past of sin allowed, sin practiced, temptation yielded to, and decisions made having us look to our pasts with shame and remorse. Maybe that is not you. I doubt it. Let us test it. Would we be willing to stand in front of a packed church of all the people who think they know us, and have on a large screen all our past displayed for all to see – every thought we had, every word we spoke, every activity we did, every event we attended, and every temptation fed? Not me. And I am sure not you.
When it comes to the working of the devil in his attempts to get us to look away from Jesus and His love, mercy, and forgiveness, he goes to our past. He constantly seeks to remind us of our many sins, our many failings, and our many times of failing short of God’s glory and desire for us. If he is successful in getting us to listen to his fiery darts of condemnation to our consciences, we will be spiritually paralyzed in the present. No joy. No peace. No power. No influence for the Lord. Our Christian lives will be in name only. Yet, this is not God’s desire. He does not want us to live in our past. The way to fulfill His desire for us is to remember what God has done with our past.
First, He chose not to remember the sins and failures of our past. Get a handle on this wonderful act of His mercy, love and forgiveness. The writer to Hebrews penned this soul-liberating truth – This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds, then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Hebrews 10:16-17). And He did this by His own choice!
Next, He removes our past from us, and He does this at the greatest possible distance – For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:11-12).
Friends, the accusing voices of the devil and conscience are no match for the powerful and liberating voice of God’s Word. He tells us with clarity and truth, “Deal with your past as I have. It is not remembered and removed.” And when it does come down to living all the Christian life, it really is a matter of listening to the right voice in our conscience – condemning lies of the devil or liberating truth from the Lord.
PRAYER: “Father, thank You for new day mercies that allow me to walk with You in this new day.”
QUOTE: “Don’t let the devil cause us to focus on our failings of yesterday and miss the grace of today.”