Oh, the mistakes I’ve made, the mistakes no one knows about, no one would anticipate, because I’m rather crafty at appearing put together, especially in the spiritual department. That’s not to say that I employ deceptive tactics. In fact, most who know me say that I’m pretty vulnerable in my struggles and failures.
However, being a perfectionist, coming from a judgmental church background, and attending a private Christian school rooted in legalism will teach you the art of pretending. This is particularly dangerous for the formative years because it offers youth a warped perception of God’s grace, leaving them spiritually hollow when adulthood reveals how complicated, messy, and challenging life can be.
I’m nearly twenty years into my journey with Jesus, and I am only now beginning to understand the bare basics of God’s grace and mercy, willing myself to believe that His goodness and blessings aren’t doled out based on my performance, nor are they prevented or controlled by my failures. Instead, God is good, sovereign, and always has my best interests in mind, so I can trust in His forgiveness and the plan He has for me, no matter how significant my failures are.
If you’re like me and are exhausted from carrying the guilt of private sins, or you come from a church background rooted in judgment and shame, I encourage you to consider these four Scriptures that remind us not to dwell on the past:
1. Hebrews 8:12
"For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12 (ESV)
There’s little reason to drag your former mistakes into the present if God doesn’t remember them. In a way, you’re spiritually gaslighting yourself, convinced you feel this heavy load on your heart that was lifted the moment you repented.
What I love about God no longer remembering our sins is the nature by which He “forgets” them. He doesn’t forget out of neglect or brain fog. It’s simply not within His character to act carelessly or ignorantly. Instead, He chooses to forget our sins. While we, as humans, often forgive but can’t forget, God actively chooses to ignore, even in His omniscience, when He knows we will repeat the same offense again and again.
This is His mercy: withholding from us the bitterness and skepticism He certainly has a right to feel concerning how we abuse His eternal grace. But, as is the way with our good, perfect God, we are given nothing but unending love and new chances.
We owe it to God’s mercy to step into each day embracing the forgiveness, hope, and fresh beginnings He lavishly extends. In accepting these gifts, we honor His love and can release any guilt and shame that God no longer remembers.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
Just as God no longer remembers our sins, we are commanded to do the same. Isaiah takes the command a step further, though. No longer should we dwell on the past, but we are to see the new things God is doing this very moment.
It’s a command that we be present where we are, that we actively seek God’s hand and His goodness, the daily bread by which He sustains us, each day. (After all, it’s impossible to be present in today when your mind, and subsequently your spirit, are stuck in the past, replaying mistakes, second-guessing decisions, and remaining hopeless about the future.)
It’s important to remember that while God’s goodness doesn’t hinge on our performance, our ability to see His unyielding goodness depends on our willingness to open our spiritual eyes to the goodness and glory of each new day.
God recognizes the wastelands and deserts we trudge through in this fallen world. He’s also aware of the wastelands and deserts that we are in as a direct result of our sinful, selfish decisions. Even still, He actively prepares a way out, a path to forgiveness, restoration, hope, and joy, but if we keep our focus on the barren land of the past, we won’t see His salvation paved before us.
3. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 (NIV)
God won’t force His children to live in His present freedom. That’s the goodness He extends—the freedom to choose how we fix our thoughts and where we place our purpose and worth. However, God grants us gifts that are impossible to find anywhere outside His goodness. And in this unfathomable gift of salvation, we have been given a new life that, spiritually speaking, makes the former life disappear.
When we remember that God has scattered our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), we are freed to extend that same reconciliation to others. We can better restore what was broken, forgive what seemed impossible, and be imagebearers of God’s incredible grace and mercy to a lost, dying world.
To dwell on the past is to neglect the reconciliation we are given today, and in denying that present gift, we stifle our witness. Thus, the same cycle of guilt and shame we feel trapped in is the same one we leave others to trudge through because we aren’t willing to find freedom and joy in sharing the gift of newness found in God each day.
Our freedom was bought with the highest price, the blood of the perfect Son of God, and to keep that gift stowed away because we don’t want to let go of the past is not only a neglect of our calling but a disservice to the cross.
4. Luke 9:62
“Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” Luke 9:62 (NLT)
If we choose to live in the past, to dwell on sins and past mistakes, whether we committed the sin or someone else left us damaged, we aren’t fit to actively participate in the kingdom of God. This doesn’t mean we aren’t saved, but it means that we aren’t engaging in the calling to establish and grow God’s reign on earth.
Not only are we not of any service to God on earth, as our passage in Luke shares, but we aren’t fit to enjoy heaven. This might seem odd, but consider the spiritual reality of heaven: it requires us to let go of all sin, hurt, guilt, temptation, and shame to embrace the eternal perfection of God’s salvation.
We can’t take shame, hurt, and guilt with us, only God’s goodness and salvation. And if we claim to be one of God’s children, saved by His righteousness, it’s not only our calling but should be our heartfelt desire to press on, press forward, and press towards the prize of God Himself.
The High-Calling to Not Dwell on the Past
When the enemy wants you weighed down by the past, when mistakes convince you God won’t use you, consider the gift of God’s voice, the purpose-filled joy He longs to share with you:
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature, should take such a view of things. And if at some point you think differently, God will make that clear to you too. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” Philippians 3:14-17 (NIV)
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