Yesterday's Door is Closed

Do you ever have flashbacks from your childhood, teenage years, college years, or even yesterday? Do these flashbacks ever make you cringe? Do you ever feel embarrassed or ashamed of the things you've done or said in the past?

I don't think its just me, is it? 

Seriously, sometimes a memory from my college years will pop in my mind and I immediately feel mortified. Or something I said to someone as a teenager will come to mind and I'm suddenly ridden with guilt. I'll think about how I stuck my foot in my mouth or how ridiculous something I did was and I want to run and hide.  When I have those shaming memories, I have to remind myself that I no longer live in those moments. I know Satan is trying to find anything he can to drown me in guilt and shame. Little does he know....I'm not bound to those chains any longer. 

I love these lyrics from Danny Gokey's song "Let Your Heart Beat Again"

Let every heartbreak, and every scar

be a picture that reminds You who has carried you this far

Close your eyes and breathe it in, let the shadows fall away

Step into the light of grace.

Yesterday's a closing door, You don't live there anymore

Say goodbye to where you've been and tell your heart to beat again.

Those lyrics remind me that God has carried me through all those years of bad choices and embarrassing scenarios. When those memories come to mind, I have to remind myself that I don't live there anymore. I'm not the same person I used to be and I don't have to let those thoughts cloud my mind. By God's grace I am forgiven and loved and nothing from my past is hanging over my head, defining who I am. 

Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." I am grateful for that! No matter what we've done or what memories haunt us, when we ask for forgiveness, He is faithful to forgive! He doesn't only forgive, He removes those things from us! The door to all of those yesterdays is CLOSED. To dwell on those things or let them define us would be making little of all that God has done for us. Today I am thankful for the freedom to move on from all those memories! We can say goodbye to where we've been! Thank you, Jesus.