Let Go of Your Past

Just like Joshua and the Israelites, God has placed a vision of a personal Promised Land in your heart. But the first step along the path to pursuing God’s vision requires something critical to the rest of your journey: You’ve got to let go of the past. Possessing your Promised Land means you’ve got to make a healthy break with whatever you are clinging to—for sure, the bad, and sometimes even the good!

You will notice the very first thing God said to Joshua (Joshua 1:2) was, “Moses is dead!”  Don’t you think Joshua already knew that? Of course he did! So there is more to this verse than meets the eye. God is telling Joshua that he’s going to do a new work in a new way, so Joshua can no longer rely on Moses—as wonderful as Moses was. No, Joshua will have to rely completely on God. God will give Joshua a breakthrough to a new and prosperous future that will require a break with the old dependencies of the past!

For you, that means moving forward into new blessings will require you to jettisoning two things:

One, you have to jettison your love affair with past successes. And two, you have to say goodbye to past failures. You can’t stay stuck in the past—either good or bad if you want to move forward! The Apostle Paul said it this way in Philippians 3:7 & 13-14,

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Paul had learned from the past, both mistakes and successes, but his total focus was on the future.  That’s what you’ve got to do, too! Faith always focuses on the future.  So how do you let go of the past? Hebrews 12:1 provides the answer,

“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.” 

The writer is referring to a race, where excess weight is not good. And to run effectively, the verse says you’ve got to let go of a couple things: First, you’ve got to let go of the unnecessary and second, you’ve got to let go of the ungodly.

What is the unnecessary? It is “the weight that slows us down.” Weight is not necessarily sin—although sin is always a weight. A weight is anything that keeps you from offering your best to God, or receiving God’s best for you.  In fact, a weight might even be something that’s good—that’s why it’s so hard to let go of. If there are some good things in your life keeping you from God’s best things, then identify them and strip them off.

What is the ungodly? It is “the sin that so easily hinders us.” The writer isn’t talking about sin in general—although that is certainly appropriate to let go of—he is speaking of specific sin into which we habitually fall. That is what we might call “familiar sin”. What sin do you keep falling into? What’s your area of moral compromise? Whatever your besetting sin, you’ve got to let it go!

To run your race effectively, to possess your promise of blessing, you have to identify the weight you’re carrying around—successes and sins—and declare over them:  Moses is dead!  Let go of the past—and get moving into the fantastic future God envisions for you!

“You cannot set sail for new faith-horizons while still tethered to the dock of yesterday.”

Reflect and Apply: Take some time to identify those “weights” that are slowing you down and the “sins” that are tripping you up. Then declare over them, “Moses is dead!”  Most of all, begin to move forward into the future God has set before you.