5 Strategies to Effectively Address Your Yesterday
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There is a truth about life that we all must face: we all have a yesterday. The challenge of yesterday is that the recording of our lives is available to us in our minds, like movies on demand. We can watch them when we want, and we can go to a specific point in time and replay it over and over. This on-demand movie of our lives is filled with both high points and low ones.
God was telling the Israelites to use the stones to remember God’s faithfulness in bringing them across the Jordan. At this point in Israel’s history, you would definitely call this a win. However, the stones were only there to remember, not to be idolized. In other words, after crossing the Jordan, they still had to move forward to conquer Jericho and possess the promised land.
It is okay to remember past victories, but only to the degree they help you move forward in conquering future ones. If all you do is remember the old victory but stop pursuing new ones, then your past success has become an idol. God wants you to keep moving forward and to use the stones as encouragement to know that there is more to do, and God will be with you as you do it.
If there is one key thing you must do in addressing your yesterday, it is to understand the subtle differences between conviction and condemnation. Many times, the enemy attempts to mimic the Holy Spirit in your life and when he does, he often comes bringing condemnation. Let me attempt to sum up the difference between these two.
Conviction makes you aware of your sin with the goal of leading you to repentance and drawing you toward God.
Condemnation makes you aware of your sin with the goal of hopelessness and guilt that causes you to move away from God.
If the acknowledgment of your sin is leading you to run to God for forgiveness and cleansing, that is conviction. If the acknowledgment of your sin makes you focus on how wicked or wretched you are, causing you to think God wants nothing to do with you anymore, that is condemnation.
The reason God makes you aware of your sin is not to push you away, but to move you to repentance so he can draw you near. This is the heartbeat of conviction. You must be aware of the difference in these two things because as we saw earlier in 1 John, if you confess your sins God will forgive you and cleanse you. God’s great love for you is always reaching and he will use conviction as the method to draw you near to him.
Paul had the right approach to address your yesterday – forget what is behind. What he is saying here is don’t hold on to anything from your past – good or bad – but focus and put your energy to what God has ahead of you.
God has not only called you heavenward he has also called you to good works that he has prepared for you to do now (Eph. 2:10). This is where the focus and energy of your life should be. If you have unrepentant sins in your life then repent, embrace God’s forgiveness and cleansing, then move forward. If you have victories in your past, learn from them and allow them to remind you of God’s faithfulness, but put your focus forward because there is more to do. In either scenario, always be pressing forward knowing that God’s best plan for your life is always ahead of you and not behind you.
As you attempt to address your yesterday, the truth is there is nothing you can do to change what has already happened. The best thing you can do is to learn from your past choices, whether they were good or bad. Please know today if you have truly repented from sins of your past, you are forgiven and clean. Also, if you have had great victories in your past, the journey is not over. Either way God has more for you, and he wants you to use the lessons of yesterday and apply them in your life today. When you do this, it will free you from your yesterday, allowing you to live and do what God has called you to do. You can do this knowing God’s best for your life is always in front of you and never behind you.
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