While studying the Bible, I came across a verse in the Book of Isaiah 43:18 what does it say, “Forget the old things, because I am doing something new in your life.“. That verse really challenged me and I asked myself two questions. These questions are:-
1 Do I always think about my past?
2 Am I waiting for the new thing that God has promised me?
There is great danger if we remain focused on our past. The Devil uses the weapon from our past to prove to us that God cannot hurt us. He will always remind you of the many times you failed in your past and other things that will make you doubt God and his power. In this article, I want to share with you the dangers of dwelling on your past. These dangers are:-
Prevents you from starting something new
When you think too much about your past and remember how you have been failing, then you cannot dare something new. The Bible records the story of Simon Peter and his brother when they were fishing. They had worked all night but caught nothing. They had even reached the point of giving up. Jesus appeared to them and ordered them to drop the net to the bottom. Instead of obeying Jesus, they began to tell Jesus how they had worked all night and caught nothing. But later, they obeyed and caught a large number of fish. The reason they were not following Jesus’ instructions was because they were insisting that they had not been able to catch anything all night. If you live too much in your past, you will always find an excuse not to start a new project.
It makes us limit the power of God
We are tempted to limit God’s power when we dwell on our past. Perhaps in your past you have been walking, paying your way to work and not even owning a bicycle. And God comes into your life and tells you that you will have your own vehicle. You may be tempted to doubt Him as you may wonder why He was not blessing you in the past. God is able to do something new in your life no matter what your past has been like. He is capable of hurting you even if in your past you were cursed. We must not qualify the power of God by our past experiences, we must qualify it by what his word says he can do. This is the main reason why we have been limiting God. But if we read the Bible, we will find that God can change his situation.
It makes us not have big visions/dreamsAnother danger of dwelling on the past is that it prevents us from having grand visions. We need to get over our past and say enough is enough. We should start dreaming big dreams about our lives, regardless of what our past has been like. We must change our way of thinking and believe in God’s word that He is doing something new. Once we change our view of the past, we begin to see new and better things happening in our lives. When God called Gedion to go fight the Midianites, he initially refused because of his family’s past. But when he believed that God would be with him, he led the Israelites and they won the battle against the Midianites. He became a greater man who was used by God in a mighty way. In conclusion, I want you to keep in mind that his negative past does not disqualify him from having a bright future.