3. Where Should We Dwell?

Isaiah 43: 16-19
16 This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
17 who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 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.

4 Steps to Moving on from the Past

1. Remember what God did in the past.

What he did in the Bible for others, what he has done for others in your life, and what he
has done in the past for you.

2. Forget the past.

Is it really possible to “forget” the past. It is not so much that you get to a place where
you can’t remember in your mind the past, but that the past must not dictate our thoughts
and actions today.

3. Do not live in the past.

But not only do we struggle to look forward to the future and put the past behind us, but
many of us dwell or in other words live in the past. (David Miller and selling our church.)

4. Move Forward.

Live in the present and move on to the future God has for you.

As I have worked in ministry, the older members of my congregation have all fallen into two
categories. Those who are bitter, angry, and full of regret for the past. The other group are people
the same age who had let go of the past and lived for today. It wasn’t that the first group had a
harder past, because that simply is not the case. But one had chosen to live for today and the
other had chosen to dwell in yesterday.

Triple D: Have you struggled to move on from your past? I’d like to encourage you to take the
time to write down what it is you keep dwelling upon, and then pray and ask God to help you
move on from it.