Past, present and future

Our ladies meeting this month was awesome. God really met us all there and poured out His Spirit on the ladies. One little girl accepted Jesus as her Savior. Another little girl, as is our belief in the Pentecostal faith, received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Watching children praise Jesus and give their hearts to Him......indescribable.

The speaker gave a good message and one statement stood out and stuck with me.

We have to let go of our past to be in our present and go into our future.

This can only be done through Jesus. If we don't let go of our past, be it hurts we received, sins we have committed and been forgiven of, but that we still feel guilt over; we can not move on in Him. He needs us to let go and let Him have control. If we hang onto those things, we can not operate in the fullness of what He has called us to. We are saying, in a way, that Jesus was not and is not big enough to forgive, heal, and take those things to the cross as He did. We are saying, in a word, that what He did on the cross, was not enough to rid us of pain, sin, guilt and shame. His bore it ALL to the cross. He didn't just take some people's sins. He took them all. He did not bare some people's pain, sickness and grief to the cross. He bore it all that we might live. That my friends is the message. He is enough to erase it all. We just have to let it go. The moment we ask, it is done, BUT we have to let it go and put it down to get rid of it. We can't say "take this" and then still hold onto it.

What a message! It was powerful and it was awesome and our Lord met us there.

I am letting some stuff go. It doesn't matter if the people that hurt me in the past, ever said I'm sorry, forgive me, I was wrong. It matters that I let it go and not only walk in forgiveness but walk in the freedom of letting go.

I too often am guilty of holding onto things I should let go. I stew on it and let it simmer. I say I forgive and I mean it, but I let the pain of the event simmer. That is saying that Jesus is not strong enough to heal the hurt. He is strong enough. He did it on the cross before I was ever hurt. When I was hurt, He was standing there with me; taking the pain for me. Could He have stopped it? Most certainly, He could have. However, He being who He is, must let people make choices. Some people choose to hurt others. Does it mean that we are less important? No, it means that when people make wrong, free will based choices, people get hurt. Only the blood shed on the cross can erase that pain. And the person doing that hurt will only get freedom when they humble themselves and repent before a mighty God.

We can choose to break the power of the hurt by letting it go, regardless of whether the other person ever asks forgiveness. We then will be free. And the power of the pain and wrong will have no hold on us. That is the beauty of the cross.

So I choose to walk in freedom. I choose to let things go. I choose to believe in the power of the Savior who died on the cross. I choose to let God draw others to Him and change in them what needs to be changed. I choose to be free from the past, walk in the freedom of the present to be prepared to live in freedom for all eternity long, which is my future.