Healing the past frees you to go forward
Have you ever felt that because of things that happened to you in the past, either mistakes you made or things other people did to you, you haven’t been able to live your life the way you wanted to or be as successful as you could be? Healing the past can make all the difference going forward.
Not very often – but every once in a while it can be healthy – I look back at some of the poor choices I’ve made over the years, or times when someone did me harm, or situations that had a very negative impact on my life.
I try to take an honest look at these experiences from the past, not to dwell on them or get bogged down in a pity party. But I look back at them to see if, in any way, my attitude about what happened is keeping me from going forward and making progress in my life.
Not healing the past can be dangerous
If I’m holding onto resentment toward someone for the way they treated me, or toward myself for a bad decision I made, or if I’m letting some negative event from the past still influence the way I think and act today, this can be like carrying around a big bag of broken glass. It’s heavy and if you’re not careful, it can cut you.
Another analogy for dealing with past hurts and mistakes I’ve found very helpful is cleaning out a closet that has worn out clothes, books, toys, tools, and just plain old junk. There may be a some things you need to keep and reorganize, but a lot of it needs to be thrown away.
But sometimes when people try to find healing from their past, they get so absorbed in all the negative stuff, it’s overwhelming and too painful. To face the past and deal with those hurts and mistakes, you need to have some kind of spiritual guide post, a spiritual perspective, or spiritual compass to keep you on the right track.
Without this spiritual perspective, it’s kind of like going into a dark closet to clean it out but not turning on the light so you can see what you’re doing and know what to keep and what to get rid of.
Is healing the past possible?
When you can look at your past by shining the light of Christ on it, you can see clearly what needs to be kept or let go of in your thinking, what needs to be forgiven, what can be repaired, and what new perspectives you need to adopt.
Is it possible to redeem the past? Is it possible to heal the past?
For years, I’ve heard so many people say “You can’t change the past. You just have to live with the consequences of what happened. It’s part of your life and you can’t escape the pain or the mistakes.”
I have always rebelled against that idea. I know what they mean, but I still don’t like the finality with which they say it.
I do agree to a point. You can’t literally change something that happened in the past. But you can change how you react to it. You can change the way it tries to define you. And you can change the way it influences you going forward.
Two examples of healing the past in the Bible
Two of the best examples of this in the Bible are Jacob and his son Joseph in the Old Testament. Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and blessing.
But many years later, when God told him to return to his homeland, he had to face his misdeeds of how he treated his brother. When he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men, he was terrified.
In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.” Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.” Genesis 32:7-11 NIV
Jacob was sure his brother would be angry with him because of the way he had cheated him years before. He felt guilty. He was afraid. He was forced to look at his past and realize the mistakes he made. And more importantly, all this impelled Jacob to pray to God for help.
God facilitates healing the past
I think it’s interesting that it was God who told Jacob to return to his homeland. If Jacob had stayed with Laban, his father-in-law, he might never have had to face his past mistakes and resolve them.
This is true for you and me as well. God may lead you back to your “homeland” either literally or figuratively to face the what happened so it can be redeemed.
This sort of happened to me about four years after I graduated from college. I had been living in Boston and considered it my new home. But then one day, I asked God where He wanted me to live and He told quite plainly to go back to my hometown of Amarillo, TX. That was the last place I wanted to be. I loved my family, but I didn’t really want to live in the same town with them.
But I was obedient and moved back to my hometown. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I got to know my parents in an adult relationship. Some issues from the past were resolved, and I came to really respect and love my parents in a way I never had before.
God healing your past
Don’t be surprised if God impels you to return to some time, place, or relationship from the past in order for wrongs to be righted and healing to take place. Now, that’s now always what happens, but when it’s God-impelled, you’ll know it. Sometimes you might not actually go back to a place, but you have to deal with it in your thinking. These situations are always an opportunity for prayer and trusting God.
Well, back to Jacob and Esau. Fortunately they reconciled and treated each other with brotherly love and respect.
If you want more details of this part of their story, you can read about it in Chapters 32 and 33 in Genesis.
Jacob came face to face with his past mistakes and because he turned to God for help, his past was redeemed. It didn’t change the fact that he had cheated his brother, but it lifted the initial self-justification and later guilt, from Jacob’s heart. His past was redeemed and healed, to some degree.
Healing the past when you’re treated unfairly
It’s fascinating to me that Jacob’s son, Joseph, is a perfect example of another way the past needs to be redeemed and healed.
Joseph was unfairly treated by his older brothers. They sold him into slavery. Joseph then worked for Potiphar in Egypt. During that time Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. That, in and of itself, might be enough to inflict some emotional baggage, but then she falsely accused him of trying to seduce her.
Isn’t that just the way the evil mind works! It tries to blame the innocent for its own crimes.
So Joseph gets thrown into prison for years. We don’t know all the details, but from reading the story closely, it doesn’t seem like Joseph is carrying a lot of resentment toward his brothers or Potiphar’s wife. I imagine he had to forgive them lots of times.
We get an insight into Joseph’s character in
But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.Genesis 39:20, 21 NIV
“The Lord was with Joseph.” That tells much more than it says. Now, I know I’m reading between the lines here, but if Joseph had been full of anger, bitterness, and resentment, he wouldn’t have been aware that God was with him.
But wait, there’s more
There’s so much to this story, but eventually Joseph is made prime minister of Egypt and saves the whole region from famine. His brothers come to buy grain from him, not knowing who he is. When they eventually find out it’s their brother they had sold years before into slavery and thought might be dead, they are happy, but they’re also terrified Joseph will take revenge on them.
Just as their father Jacob had realized his mistake with his brother, they knew they had made a huge mistake with their brother, Joseph.
But God gave Joseph a higher spiritual perspective – it’s this spiritual compass I’m talking about, it’s like having that light on in your closet when you clean it out – and he could say to his brothers,
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20 NIV
Joseph did not let the way his brothers mistreated him stop him from carrying out God’s plan for him.
This is true for you and me as well. No mistakes you’ve made, no sins you’ve committed, nothing anyone has done to harm you in any way, can stop you from / being who God made you to be and doing what God created you to do.
Redeeming and healing the past
The Bible has so many stories of people and ideas which shine light on how to redeem and heal past mistakes and hurts. There’s no way to mention them all, but I’ll share a few that have been really helpful to me.
One is from Ecclesiastes. Now, I’m going to share the way I first learned this verse from KJV, then I’ll share different translations which shed additional light on it.
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. Ecclesiastes 3:15 KJV
Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account [or: God calls back the past]. Ecclesiastes 3:15 NIV
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away [or: what has been pursued]. Ecclesiastes 3:15 ESV
Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted [or: God seeks what is pursued]. Ecclesiastes 3:15 CSB
What is occurring occurred long since.
And what is to occur occurred long since.
And God seeks the pursued. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Tanakh
As you can see there’s a wide range of interpretation of the original Hebrew. But the sense I get from this verse is that you can’t hide the past from God. If there’s something in your past that needs to be healed, God will “pursue” it and bring it back to you, or bring you back to it, as He brought Jacob back to his homeland, so it can be healed.
Letting go of the past
I love this passage from Isaiah.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.The wilderness and the wasteland, you could think of as the past, that we need to let go of and not remember.” Isaiah 43:18, 19 NIV
There’s a lot of wisdom in this. Sometimes we get so absorbed in what happened in the past, we can’t move forward.
But just to put this in perspective, just a few chapters later Isaiah says,
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 46:9 NIV
So what are we supposed to do? Forget the past or remember it?
Well, whenever you’re reading Bible verses like this, it’s important to look at the context, the whole context where these verses show up. In this case, God is telling the children of Israel to remember how He has helped them in the past.
But the previous verse was explaining not to dwell on the mistakes that were made. Correct them and go forward. God will give new opportunities to obey Him.
Healing the past sins
Isaiah actually has a lot to say on this subject of letting go of the past. In the very first chapter God tells him what to say to the people to get them to leave behind their past sinful behavior.
“Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:16-18 NIV
When God washes away the sins of the past, they are gone. You are forgiven. You don’t need to keep beating yourself up over it. It’s time to go forward, redeemed and healed.
Jeremiah brings out this same idea about the thoroughness of God’s forgiveness of sins.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
Now I recommend you go to Jeremiah Chapter 31 to see this in context. It’s very helpful
And by the way, the author of Hebrews quotes this verse twice, in chapters 8 and 10.
This is pretty amazing. When your sins are forgiven, God will not remember them. Then why on earth should we keep dwelling on them? We don’t need to. Accept God’s forgiveness and go forward with your life.
Following Christ
Now you may look back occasionally and be grateful for God delivering you from past mistakes, but our vision should be looking to where we’re going in our efforts to follow Christ.
And speaking of following Christ, Paul talks about letting go of the past in this context. I quote these verses a lot.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.The reason we can put off the old self is because it’s not who we really are. Your past mistakes and sins, the things others have done to harm you, do not define you. God is the only One who defines who you are. Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV
You can put off the old man, the old self, you can let go of the past, because it is not who you are. I’ve talked about these ideas before on The Bible Speaks to You. One episode in particular you might enjoy if you haven’t already listened to it, is Episode 135: Your Past Does not Define You.
I love this promise in Psalms.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:11, 12 NIV
Now, that is forgiveness.
Healing the past with the resurrection
But the ultimate sense forgiveness comes with Jesus. Many Christians say it was Jesus’s death on the cross that frees us from sin. But Paul makes it clear there’s more to complete forgiveness than just the crucifixion.
It’s Jesus’s resurrection, his victory over death, that truly seals the deal on God’s forgiveness and washing away and remembering our sins no more. Paul says,
if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV
If you’re absorbed in the sins you have committed and have a hard time forgiving yourself and accepting God’s forgiveness, or you have a hard time forgiving those who have sinned against you, maybe it’s time to shift your focus from these sins to Jesus’s victory over sin in his resurrection. Rejoice in his resurrection, in his victory over death and sin. Be in awe of the resurrection. Let it fill your mind.
What Was God saying to you when…?
Recently I was thinking of how to accept and experience more of God’s love and forgiveness for what happened in the past. I was remembering that popular saying that you can’t change the past and just have to live with the consequences.
A friend and I were talking about how God is always communicating with us, but that we don’t always listen or obey what we hear. I realized that every time I made a mistake, was being hurt by others, or was in a dangerous situation and was so scared I didn’t know what to do, right in that moment, God was, nevertheless, talking to me, even though I didn’t hear it at the time.
So, I have revisited some of those situations from the past, and asked God what He was telling me at the time and that I didn’t hear. This has been such an amazing revelation to me. And God has been so gentle in reassuring me of what He was telling me at the time, but that I didn’t hear.
God reaching back into the past
Here’s an example. On the night before I started 7th grade–I was about 12 years old–I could not go to sleep. I was scared of going to a new school. And this is kind of embarrassing now, but I was afraid of how the other guys would tease me in the showers after gym class. I was the fat kid in class and got teased sometimes because of it, but that night I was ashamed and embarrassed already in my mind and worried how the other guys would make fun of me in my birthday suit.
I wasn’t just afraid. I was terrified. My parents tried to console me in every way they could think of. I never really got to sleep that night. But off I went to school the next day. And yes, I got teased a little, but it wasn’t so bad as I thought it would be. It was more my fear of it.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I asked God, “God, what were You saying to me that night when I was so afraid?” This is what God said to me:
“I was holding you in My hands and told you over and over I loved you. I told you I had made you in My image and likeness and that was all that anyone could really see when they looked at you. I told you that your worth and value were not based on your body shape. I told you if you would love everyone the way Jesus would have loved them, they will treat you with love too.”
This made me cry. I tried to imagine how I would have felt that night many years ago if I had actually heard God saying this to me. What a difference it would have made.
But in hearing what God said He told me at the time, it gave me a deep sense of peace and I felt God had reached back into the past and redeemed it and brought healing. Now, it’s not that I was carrying around a bunch of trauma from that experience. I had pretty much forgotten about it. But still, it felt like a gentle rain washing away some dirt from the past.
Since then I’ve done this same prayer exercise with some of the bad choices I’ve made or the times I have sinned. Sometimes it’s been a simple thing, like asking God what I should have said to someone in a conversation but didn’t listen to His voice at the time.
A prayer for healing the past
I encourage you to try this little prayer exercise. If there’s something from your past, whatever it may be, troubles you, be still for a moment and ask God what He was telling you at the time that you didn’t hear. And write it down in your journal, if you keep one. I might have forgotten the words God told me, which I just shared with you, if I hadn’t written them down.
There’s no way for you to take any guilt or shame with you into heaven. You can’t take any memories of your mistakes or sins either. If God doesn’t remember them, you won’t either. And you can’t take resentment over how someone or some circumstance may have harmed you.
Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This means we don’t have to wait to begin to experience being in the presence of heaven. That also means that to the degree you are aware that heaven is at hand, you can let go of these things from the past right now. The love and forgiveness of God can reach back into what you call the past and bring redemption and healing.
_____________
James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
Make a donation to support the show
_____________
Bible References
Genesis 32:7-11 NIV
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
Genesis 39:20, 21 NIV
20 But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
Genesis 50:20 NIV
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Ecclesiastes 3:15 KJV
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Ecclesiastes 3:15 NIV
15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account [or: God calls back the past].
Ecclesiastes 3:15 ESV
15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away [or: what has been pursued].
Ecclesiastes 3:15 CSB
15 Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted [or: God seeks what is pursued].
Ecclesiastes 3:15 Tanakh
15 What is occurring occurred long since.
And what is to occur occurred long since.
And God seeks the pursued.
Isaiah 43:18, 19 NIV
18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.The wilderness and the wasteland, you could think of as the past, that we need to let go of and not remember.
Isaiah 46:9 NIV
9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Isaiah 1:16-18 NIV
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
34 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.The reason we can put off the old self is because it’s not who we really are. Your past mistakes and sins, the things others have done to harm you, do not define you. God is the only One who defines who you are.
Psalm 103:11, 12 NIV
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV
17 if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
