Food for Your Faith April 17, 2012
Posted by Bishop McDuffie | Posted in default | Posted on 17-04-2012
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Don’t Let Your Past Mistakes Hinder You
By Kenneth E. Hagin
…and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)
Something that hinders many people’s faith from working is their past mistakes, their failures, and their faults.
Well, what does God’s Word have to say about it? What does God’s Word have to say about your mistakes? What does God’s Word have to say about your failures?
God’s Word says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Every time the devil brings a picture of your past mistakes, confess what God says instead of confessing how you feel about it. Confess that God has forgiven you and cleansed you. Say, “I’m forgetting it, because He has forgotten it.”
Even though the devil may bring a picture of it to your mind, don’t entertain it, because God has forgiven you and has forgotten it. You can stand in the Presence of God as though you had never done anything wrong. As you confess God’s Word, the reality of it will be developed in your life until you’ll feel so clean and pure.
When the devil brings a picture of a past wrong you did, don’t deny it. Just say, “Yes, I did that. I was wrong. I missed it. But First John 1:9 says that if I confess my sins, God is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me of all unrighteousness.”
God has forgiven you. Thank Him for it and your faith will start working again.
Confession
God is not holding my past mistakes against me. He has forgiven me and forgotten it. I can stand in the Presence of God as though I had never done anything wrong.
Amen!
One other thing I thought of too in regards to not letting our past mistakes hinder us, is how often we have been punished for things or condemned for things that we didn’t even know about. And how even now many adults find themselves being unreasonably hard on themselves.
Por exemplo or for example (in Spanish), we get spanked for touching a hot iron at one year of age or maybe as an adult our spouse retaliates at us for not making their soup right which ultimately will dilute or shatter our confidence in our ability to do things right when things like this happen repeatedly.
Well, obviously what we did wrong in those cases were not intentional wrongs but if we relate like-situations to them then we do not have the confidence to move forward unhindered for fear of condemnation or punishment.
I don’t want you to think that I’m making excuses for wrong behavior because if something is wrong then it’s wrong. But, it’s one thing to know something is wrong and to be punished for doing it and a whole-n-other thing to not know something is wrong and be punished for it the same because again that dilutes or shatters ones confidence.
In Psalm 103:1-3 from the NASB it says:
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
3 WHO PARDONS ALL YOUR INIQUITIES,…
Verse 3 is what I want to emphasize…specifically the word “iniquity (ies)”.
As a condensed breakdown, in the Greek, this word “iniquity” is “Anomia”, which comes from the root word “Anomos”, which is two compounded words; “A” meaning “without” and “Nomos” meaning “Law or Torah”; to conclude that one is without the Law. Now, this could mean one is without the Law for the lack of teaching or understanding OR because he or she chooses to practice a lawless way of life. At any rate sin is sin. So, the Bible says that God pardons ALL of our iniquities be they intentional or unintentional. (Just for the record, we don’t intentionally sin just because we know He will forgive us.)
But, here’s my point. If GOD pardons ALL of our iniquities and He does, (and technically He would be the One with whom we have any beef), then we should be equally forgiving of ourselves and others. As far as the East is from the West so far are our sins away from us. Amen! So let’s move forward. And stop being so hard on ourselves. Let’s live! It’s okay to live! Amen!
Isn’t it wonderful to go and stand in the presence of God Almighty with great confidence and great joy! …to know that we’re not going to get a whipping for our wrongdoings! …to know that He loves us so much that He never brings those bad things back up to make us feel bad about ourselves like we have to keep giving an account for those things…yep…He just loves us and we can comfortably forget those things that lie behind us and feel safe about moving ahead. He’s interested in our freedom and our freedom of growth and deuelopment. Sure He knows what we did wrong but as far as He’s concerned, we are blameless and without a single fault…free to keep moving forward! Amen! Glory to God!