Breaking free from the hurts, pain, and disappointments of the past can be challenging for everyone. The enemy loves to keep us trapped in our connections to the past, unwilling or believing we are unable, to move forward into the new thing that God is doing to bring hope and healing. In a recent encounter with Jesus, I saw us looking over a large vineyard that spread out before us. As we stood surveying the landscape, he plucked a ripe grape and handed it to me to sample. As I put the grape in my mouth, I heard the Lord say, “It’s time for new wine!” Holy Spirit brought the passage in Luke 5 to my mind,
And who pours new wine into an old wineskin? If someone did, the old wineskin would burst and the new wine would be lost. New wine must always be poured into new wineskins. Yet you say, ‘The old ways are better,’ and you refuse to even taste the new wine that I bring.” (vs. 37-39, TPT)
One of the strategies that the enemy incorporates to get us holding on to the past from our soul, is nostalgia or sentimentality. Remembering the “good ol’ days” is rarely reflecting through a lens of clarity. Those lens are often skewed to focus only on the pleasant parts of the past, while discounting the painful realities.
Nostalgia: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.
We can read how the Israelites had nostalgic reflections on “how good they had it” as slaves in Egypt, once they were free men and had to begin learning how to make wise and powerful decisions for themselves.
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost– also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. (Numbers 11:5, NIV)
Rather than reflecting on their pain and suffering as slaves, and rejoicing in the freedom that God had opened before them, they denied the huge price that had been paid for generations in slavery!
Rather than longing for some period of time in our past, let’s release that old wineskin, giving God thanks for his faithfulness and goodness that has brought us into a new place with fresh wine! There is a big difference between reflecting back in nostalgia and using the testimony of God’s faithfulness in our past to fill us and others with hope of new beginnings and opportunities. I love the encouraging picture of this that is painted in Isaiah 43
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. (vs.18-19, NIV)
Steps in Pursuit
- Evaluate places in your life’s history, that you may still be holding onto and blocking or delaying the new thing that God has for you.
- Prayerfully ask God to help your soul be willing to remember the past through the lens of truth. Ask him to heal pain and disappointments, healing the recollection of those memories.
- Identify and consider writing down things that you can recount of God’s faithfulness. This is a testimony of his goodness in your life.
As we testify to God’s goodness in our past, it helps us be open and receptive to the faithful work he is currently doing in our lives. This process creates a new wineskin in which he can pour the new things… one of those being Freedom!
Continue the Pursuit,
Denise
