One of the most common ways the devil attacks us is by making us relive our past. He recruits us to be his co-prosecutor against our own soul. If you have done something wrong, he will plague you with some thoughts of:
- No hope no grace
- Guilt for presuming upon God’s forgiveness
- Others finding out and wanting to publicly deal with you and shame you
- God’s discipline hanging over your head to strike you when you least expect it.
- Mistakes that you’ve committed are unforgivable.
- Your past makes you unusable to God
- You should never feel at ease until you have paid your penalty
By re-living our past, the devil’s goal is to keep you from forgetting the mistakes in your past (ever). He wants us to forget our identity in Christ. He wants to keep us from rising up from the pit of despair.
There’s a quote that says “When people bring up your past, tell them Jesus already dropped the charges.” How many times does the devil bring up your past, and you begin to wallow in it. I could say over my life time times he’s tried it every day. And will until Jesus comes back.
Dwelling on your past causes you to skip out on seeing your Savior. And the longer we dwell on the glory of Jesus the more we will be like Him. And more able to learn the devil’s tactics the more weak we becomes.
You must remember that this is war. There is no neutral ground. As long as you are on this earth, the devil and his forces will seek you out.
He likes to pull up a specific memory from our past and until you defeat him he will continue to hound you with the thought. I believe that the devil’s favorite words are, “Remember When.” Oh you better hide that what would people think of you if they knew that?
He makes you think you’ve done an unforgivable sin. God doesn’t want you, you’re fooling yourself.
When you read the Bible, especially when Jesus deals with sinners with terrible pasts, do you see the Lord treating people this way? Do you see Him giving the command for His children to turn over every stone in their past until their sin is acknowledged to be dealt with in public? No.
He doesn’t tell them to fix their past and then I will accept you. He is gentle and lowly (Matthew 11:28-30). Does He seems like a Savior who would hound us who are overloaded by the crushing yoke of our past?
Why would we want to go from living a life where they do anything to forget their past sins to go to a savior who would hound us for the rest of our lives on earth with our past. I’s this freedom, love, and forgiveness?
The emotion we should naturally expect from finding Jesus is no doubt compassion. That is the most frequent thing attributed to Him.
That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t deal with our past that needs to be dealt with. That means He calls us to repentance. He is first and foremost compassionate when He does it, He is not harsh, rough, or domineering. He desires us to leave our past in the past so that we can begin to live by faith in the present. Living in the past entraps us in prison, God wants to free us from that prison.
He places our eyes on Him more than the past. But, once Deals with our past, He does not make us keep rehashing it over and over only the devil does that. God bids us time and time again to go on and live in the light of our full forgiveness in Jesus.
From Pity to Praise 