Pastor Mike spoke such an
amazing word to us one evening that truly hit my heart at dead center. I so often fall into the pit of re-thinking
and hashing over and over in my mind past sins.
I can be so hard on myself and I have such remorse over things that I
did especially as a teenager, college student and as a young adult. All before Jesus became a focal point in my
life. In all honesty, these things that
flood my mind at times absolutely haunt me.
I know that I know that God has forgiven me and I truly grasp that He
has removed my sins as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12) I trust and believe 100% of God’s Word, I’m
all in!
The problem for me is just
deep down remorse and how God didn’t give us a hard drive for our memory. Things simply are not erased or deleted from
our minds when we surrender and begin to live a life of love for Jesus and
others. Pastor Mike taught from Romans
7:21-8:2 and I encourage you to look this up for yourselves, it is
powerful! You see, I’ve always had a
heart that wants to do good but yet I would often choose doing the evil
things. My actions hurt others immensely,
they hurt me and they hurt the heart of God.
Those very choices of not doing what was right came with a life long
reaping of consequences this side of heaven.
The cool thing though is that
even though I was/am a wretched woman, God rescued me because He loves me! Romans 8:1 says that NOW there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
When I surrendered, repented and began to live my life for Christ in
November of 1999, I was no longer under condemnation. How cool is that???!!! What
I need to do when my mind hits rewind is focus on the fact that God has
forgiven me, He is a promise keeper, He loves me and I am no longer under condemnation.
The next morning I was still
impacted from the teaching from Pastor Mike so I shared with Robin and Misti in
our Sponsor prayer time what I was dealing with and how do I get past
that? They came alongside me and shared
with me something that Pastor Mike had also taught that I missed the night
before. When those memories are called
forth, they are there to help me no longer walk in the footsteps of my former
life. They are reminders to keep me from
those mistakes ever again.
At camp there were roughly
300 participants and so we were divided by churches into 4 groups and our color was pink. All the groups were amazing and worked
together so very well. One of the things
that we had to do as a group was create cheers to encourage our teams when we
were participating in Blast games each day.
For one of our cheers, Stephen a Sponsor from Missouri and he may even
be their Pastor, stepped up and became an amazing leader and started off our
group cheer with our group flag giving us a pep talk similar to Braveheart. “We may have _______ yesterday, we may have
__________, and we may have __________, but, BUT TODAY IS A NEW DAY!!!”
Stephen spurred each one of
us to dig deeper and to not allow the past to keep us knocked down. That it was a new day and we could face the
day with a good attitude. On the final
day of Blast games we moved forward and won not only the event of the last day,
but we also came away having moved into first place overall. So when the enemy is knocking you down, and
your own memories and poor choices have you discouraged, don’t stay there!!!
Get back up, giving yourself a pep talk, allowing others to give you a pep
talk, God’s Word to give you a pep talk and remind yourself that TODAY IS A NEW
DAY!
Father God, You are so
creative in how You get our attention.
The examples that You call to mind that illustrate so beautifully the
truths of Your Word are such a blessing.
Thank You for reminding me that today is a new day, with new mercies and
that You are faithful. And all God’s people said…AMEN!
With love and giving you a
pep talk to continue on in the things of God,
Yolanda and Higher Grounds
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