“All of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” declares the Lord, “because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.”
Jeremiah 31:34
G od made a covenant, or an agreement, with the Israelites and they broke it (see Jer. 11:10). They messed up royally! But God didn’t give up on them; in fact, he gave them a second chance, a new covenant. But can you imagine if they wouldn’t agree to it because they just couldn’t get over their past mistakes? Sounds ridiculous, but how many times do you say, “I just can’t get over what I did”? When you can’t get over your sin or accept God’s forgiveness, the past can haunt you and keep you living in your mistakes and traumas. It can make you keep reliving the very thing you should be done with: the past.
Your past was never meant to be your present, but it should inform it. God lets you remember your mess-ups and your misery so they can be a light for the future. If you’re brave enough to step out of the past and only look at it as a guide to the future, then you can be free to live in the present without the chains of your mistakes. Holding on to yesterday as if it’s a part of today is craziness. God has offered you a second chance. Grace is his gift to the sinner in you—will you reject it today and choose to live in your sinful past? Or will you trust that he’s big enough to help you get over your mistakes? Let go and refuse to continue to relive yesterday, and you will let God redeem your past. God is relentless in his love for you, and he will continue to call you back to him no matter what you have done in the past. The only thing that stands between you and forgiveness is your inability to accept his forgiveness, not your inability to forgive yourself. You don’t need your own forgiveness—God’s is all-sufficient. So accept it and move on. He is ready and waiting.