When Your Past Wont Let You Go Forward

New Years is a time for new beginnings and many of us make resolutions to improve our lives, whether it be kicking bad habits or pursuing dreams and goals. But, for many, the desire to move forward and make a fresh start is often hindered by the guilt of past mistakes and failures. Sometimes, we feel like because we have failed in the past or because we have committed some terrible sin or crime, we are not worthy or deserving to move forward. We allow our mistakes and failures to handicap us from becoming a better person.  Even the apostle Peter was guilty of this.

Matthew 26:34,35 "Jesus said to him (Peter), Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."

Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"

vs. 74, 75 Then he (Peter) began to curse and swear, saying "I do not know the Man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." So he went out and wept bitterly.

Not only had Peter denied Jesus three times with swearing and cursing, but he also lied to Jesus. He had made a promise to Jesus that he would choose death rather than to deny Him and when the first occasion came, he totally forgets his promise to Jesus and bails out on Him, even denying He knows Him.

What about you? Ever made a promise you didn't keep? Ever lied to someone important to you? Ever bailed out on someone when they needed you most? Have you ever let someone down?

Have you ever felt like Peter, filled with grief and bitterness over your failures?

Well, consider this. It was Jesus who told Peter that he would fail him. Jesus knew beforehand that Peter would fail.

Have you ever thought that when you fail, that Jesus already knew you would fail before you even knew it?  Jesus knew Peter would fail Him, but it never changed His love for Peter and so it is with us. Just because we often screw up, it never changes God's love for us.

And, our screw ups never change God's plans for us. If God wants you to live a good life, to pursue your goals and dreams, your mistakes and failures do not change His plans for you.

John 21:15-19 After Jesus was crucified, Peter decided to go back to fishing, his old line of work. But, Jesus appeared on the shore with fish cooking on the fire and when Peter and the others came to shore, Jesus asked Peter three times "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" 

Each time Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you" and then Jesus responded each time with "Feed my sheep, or Tend my sheep." 

Just as Peter denied Jesus three times, now Jesus is asking Peter to confess his love for Him three times. Why? Because Jesus wanted to get Peter's mind out of his pit of failure and guilt and focus back on Him and the plans He had for Peter.

You see, Jesus was not hung up on Peter's failure. Jesus was over it long before Peter. It is Peter who couldn't get past what he had done and it was hindering him from moving forward to doing the work Jesus had planned for him. Peter was going backward, back to his old work--being a catcher of fish --- instead of going forth with God's plans and work to be a catcher of souls---possibly because he felt he was no longer worthy to do it.

What Peter couldn't understand was that his failure never changed Jesus's love for him or the plans Jesus had for him. Jesus wanted Peter to forgive himself, to let go of his failure and move forward to the work He had planned for him. Jesus in a sense, was commanding Peter to let go of his failure, his guilt, commanding him to focus on picking himself up and moving on to the work that had been given to him.

And so it is with you and me. Our screw ups are no surprise to God. He knows them before we ever do and yet He still loves us and no matter how much or how bad we fail, it never changes God's love for us or His plans for us to good in this life. Just because we might do some pretty mean things never changes God's desire and plans for us to move forward and improve our lives and to do good for the lives of others around us.

So like Peter had to do, let us forgive ourselves of our failures, ask God to forgive us, and move on and pursue better things.

Let us do as the apsotle Paul said in Philippians 3:13,14 "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."


I wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope and pray that you find success in all that you seek in 2010.