Ramona is a successful professional, and she’s been rewarded many times for her congenial attitude and contributions in her workplace. She loves baking and is crazy about fashionable shoes. The love of her life, Bentley, her six-year-old Cocker Spaniel, has been her constant companion since her divorce. While married, she suffered three miscarriages, and her ex-husband filed for divorce because Ramona couldn’t get past the grief. She desperately wanted to be a mother, and after the miscarriages, she seemed to lose all interest in being a wife. The pain of losing her husband and of not being able to carry a child to full term is still very much on her mind. She wants to get married again, but she still has not been able to put the grief of the losses she has suffered behind her.
Many of us have endured tragic circumstances and painful losses in life. They have affected us in ways that we could never have imagined. The pain cut deep, and quite frankly, many of us have not healed from those wounds. We’re still carrying all the emotions and thought patterns that cause us to be stuck in the past. The Apostle Paul sheds light on what it means to release what is behind us and reach for what is ahead of us. He said in Philippians 3:13-14(NLT), “13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” God wants us in the present because that is where He is. We can’t relive our past, we can only be blessed and whole in the moment of right now.
In the Old Testament, God promised to give His people a land that was rich, flourishing, and beautiful, but they couldn’t just stand in one place and do nothing. James 2:26 tells us that faith without works is dead. God requires faith from us, and faith requires that we back it with action. So, God instructed His people to mount up with faith and go in and take the land He had promised them. They had to take it by force. He told them in Deuteronomy 11:26(NLT), “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!” The same choice is before us today. We can trust God and obey His Word and receive the blessing of doing this, or we can continue to try and forge our own paths, which will not get to the place that God has destined us to be.
We can’t figure things out on our own, and God never expects us to. Trying to do this is the wrong choice. Our Heavenly Father never intended that we should face the problems and issues of life alone. He created us because He wanted a family. He wanted children, and by establishing biological parental relationships, He is teaching us that just as good biological parents are always there for their children, as our Heavenly Father, He is always there for us, His spiritual children that will always be with Him.
Biological kids grow up, mature, and become adults, but to their parents, they will always be children. When they’re on their own, parents are so happy for their growth and success, but parents never stop being parents. They are always there to lend a helping hand—to teach and correct, and to be supportive and loving in the lives of their children for a lifetime. Well, God is more dependable, reliable, and supportive than even the best biological mom and dad. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:11(NLT), “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
We can’t receive all the newness that Jesus Christ makes available to us if our arms are already full of the pain of the past. God commands that we throw off the old and put on the new. There’s a season for mourning, but it doesn’t last always. Grief can stop us from living in the moment with our Heavenly Father. We can’t spend our lives looking back. We must release the things that are holding us back and keeping us stuck. Loss must be left in the hands of God. Psalm 147:3(ESV) tells us, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Our Great Big Wonderful God is always moving forward, and He wants us moving forward with Him. So, let’s renew our minds to the promises of His Word, and have greater faith that He will turn our pain to rejoicing and make our futures better than our pasts.■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
“Release the Things That Hold You Back”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2024. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.