Stuck?
I, much too often, mentally dwell on my past sins and failures. Perhaps you do as well. And it is easy to mourn our current situations, reflecting how our sins and failures led to circumstances we don’t like.
Satan likes us to be stuck. He likes to bind us to our past in order to prevent us from serving God in the present.
The Bible lays out the sequence we should follow to get unstuck and serve God here and now.
Confess our sins.
Receive God’s forgiveness. Believe Him! (He promised! 1 John 1:9)
Receive God’s cleansing. Believe Him! (He promised! 1 John 1:9)
Press on!
I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12–14)
While, after confessing, we should not focus on our sins and failures, God does teach us through them. We need to learn what God is telling us, and, with His help, make changes in our thoughts, words, and deeds in order to prevent a repeat of sins and failures.
If we hear yourselves saying “If only,” we are thinking about how we shouldn’t have done something, or should have done something else. That means we are stuck in the past. When we hear ourselves saying “Next time,” we have learned and are pressing on.
God has work for us to do. We can’t be stuck in the past and, at the same time, tackle His work for us today.
