The Old Has Gone and The New Has Come

By: Sarah Martin

Have you ever felt stuck in your past? Whether it be regret, heartache, pain, or a particular struggle. I’m sure we’ve all been there at some point in our lives. The past seems to linger in the back of our minds and every so often, we find ourselves pondering upon it and before we know it, we’ve been sucked into this portal and we are “living in the past”. This is, of course, a particular tactic that the enemy likes to use to draw our focus away from God and unto ourselves. In fact, holding onto the past or remaining in it centers our focus on us and off of the Lord; it becomes a stumbling block in our walk with Him.

I want to turn to Ephesians 4:22-24 from The Message translation: “But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to Him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you”.

We have to let go of our past because it is our old life and it HAS TO GO, as it says, “It’s rotten through and through”. Not only does holding onto the past prevent us from fulfilling the Father’s will, plan and purpose for our lives, it can also rob us from the blessings and new things God wants to do in the present and ahead of us. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come”. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our lives are transformed and made new because the life we had before Christ passes away and our new life and identity comes to life through Jesus. Remember, God can use our past for good, for He can make beauty from ashes, but do not hold on to or dwell on your former life. In order to inherit and embrace what is new and righteous in the days ahead of us, we must learn to let go of what is old and dead.