Holding on to your past only gives you opportunity to relive it. The Bible says that as a man thinks so is he (Proverbs 23:7). I like to make this point by saying. “Where the mind goes the man follows.” If I put my mind on the past, I will keep repeating it one way or another, but if I put it on the future I will make progress toward God’s dream for me.

You don’t have to be afraid of repeating the past. If you believe God is greater than your sins, mistakes, and shortcomings, you will have the spiritual energy and the strength and the grace of God to help you do better in the future. The dreams of your future have no room for the disappointments of the past. They will keep you weighted down and stuck.

Many times, before your feet even hit the floor in the mornings, the enemy begins to remind you of everything you did wrong the previous day or everything that did not work out well. In doing so, the enemy’s goal is to use yesterday to keep you from living today. He always wants to use your past against you. But God does not want us living under the tyranny of the past. Every day can be a new beginning if we allow it. God’s mercy is greater than yesterday’s mistakes. God’s mercies are new every single day! So every morning when you wake up and Satan starts reading you an inventory of yesterday’s failures, you need to say aloud: “God’s mercies are new every morning. I receive Your mercy right now, God. I thank you for forgiveness. Thank You for putting my past behind me and calling me forward into a great future.” Instead of wondering what terrible thing will happen before the end of the day, start the day by saying, “Something good is going to happen to me today!”

Chances are, the enemy will be there to whisper to you, “Well, you will just be disappointed and you won’t do any better today than you did yesterday”; but you can say, “I don’t know exactly what the day holds, but I am going to have a positive attitude. I am going to press forward and do my best, and at the end of this day, I will get over the mistakes I make and get ready for the next new day. You might as well leave me alone, devil, I will never give up on the new mercies God gives me every morning and I refuse to be trapped in my past.” You will be amazed at how much some good positive self-talk will help and even energize you. Being negative drains us all, but faith, hope, and a positive attitude open the door for God to work miracles.

You are the only one who can silence the enemy when he rehearses the past. No one can do it for you. If you are determined to overcome him and to press into the wonderful future God has for you, you will need to learn to talk back to the devil. You cannot borrow someone else’s determination; you have to dig down deep and get a firm grip on your inner strength and say: “I will not give up! The enemy will not use my past to steal my future! I am not going to let yesterday affect today!”

Fulfilling your destiny demands letting go of what lies behind. I had to stop mourning over what I had lost and take an inventory of what I had left. I offered that to God, even though it did not seem like much, and He has done wonderful things in my life. He will do the same thing for you if you will work with Him instead of against Him. God called Himself “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He said that was His name. Why? What kind of name is that? He is making a strong point that He is ever present, ready to work in our lives right now. He is with us to help us right now! He is able to make even past mistakes work to our benefit if we trust Him. Will you let go of the past and live every day full while you press into your future?

By faith I keep pressing on!