“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past, see, I am doing a new thing.” 

Isaiah 43:18-19

God says to forget the former things. To forget, which means to put out of one’s mind, to cease to think of or consider (Oxford Dictionary).  So God tells us to put the former things out of our mind.  The enemy would prefer you to stay in that place of regret, shame, anger, frustration, and hurt because if you are staying there, you’ll get stuck.  Trust me, I speak from experience.  If you stay in that shame, stay in that former thing, you won’t propel forward.  Satan doesn’t want you to move forward.  He wants you to stay in that same place of regret because it’s easier for him to keep you there once you allow him that foothold.  In these moments of attacks from the enemy, we need to remember what God himself tells us. We need to “forget the former things… do not dwell on the past”.  

Dwell means to stay for a while, to live in a place or reside, to keep the attention directed… to linger over.  God tells us not to linger over the former things- why? Because God is doing a new thing.  When we accept Christ in our lives, we are making our dwelling place in him.  We are to dwell in God, not our shame, not our past, and not our regret.  “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty.” Psalm 91:1 We are not to dwell on our past, on our mistakes, on our wrong choices, the broken relationships, the hurtful words, the drunken nights, the misguided paths, the closed doors, the thoughtless roads… we are not to dwell there.  God wants us to forget those former things, but to remember Him.  God wants us to remember his sovereignty, faithfulness and goodness in our past, but not to dwell on the past… no we are to dwell in HIM.  Something I need to practice regularly is deciphering what’s from God and what’s from the enemy.  Would God tell you to be ashamed of yourself or does that sound like the enemy?  Would God tell you he doesn’t forgive you?  Once you recognize the culprit, the weapon formed against you won’t prosper.  

“No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:9-12 Rather than living in your past regret or decisions you made, God wants us to remember his promises from those circumstances or consequences.  God will protect you and lift you up. Psalm 91:14-16 lays out some of God’s “I will” statements and promises to us.  

“Because they love me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue them; I will protect them, for they acknowledge my name. They will call on me, and I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will deliver them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them and show them my salvation.”  Psalm 91:14-16 

These “I will” statements are the places we need to make our dwelling place, not our shame or former thinking.  “See I am doing a new thing!” (Isaiah 43:19) When we dwell in God, God then dwells within us.  “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.” Ephesians 2:22 When we decide to let go of the past, to stop letting that shame flood your thoughts, we leave room for God to fill us with more of him.  I heard Marty Soloman once say, “if you create a space for God, he will fill it”.  “But now (not then), but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13

We have to choose to be renewed by God instead of giving the enemy a foothold with holding onto our past.  God has new things planned for us and a better future, but if we continue to hold onto the regret from past decisions, we can’t move forward.  When God tells us to look back on things, he’s telling us to remember his faithfulness, not to remember our sins.  God wants us to remember his hand and goodness when life didn’t feel good. God wants us to remember his character, not our own flawed characters.  We must remember that he was faithful then and he’ll be faithful now.  He died for your sins, so that your sins will be forgiven.  Can you make room to forgive yourself, since Jesus already did?  When we hold onto the shame, that foothold the enemy has only gets bigger.  God wants to take all the shame and sin from our lives.  He already bore it, but we must continue to confess it and go to him with it all.  It’s not easy, but it will lift something off of you, so you can propel forward.  

God loves to show up for us when we need it. God is always doing a new thing, revealing a new path, and showing us how “in all things God works for the good of those who love him”. Romans 8:28  Nothing we do or say can take back what’s already happened in the past, but God says “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12  So when you start to lose hope, find yourself in a place of regret or shame, remember that with Jesus, we are being renewed day by day. With Jesus, we are to remember his faithfulness, not our faults. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Do you believe that to be true?  God’s already set you free from the bondage of sin, now it’s time to let yourself be released. 

God is doing a new thing.