Invest in Your Future
After having been divorced for a couple of years, a woman met a very nice man who was happy, successful, and went to church. She was excited about the possibilities, but when she went into the relationship, she began to constantly talk about her past hurts and pains. She would explain that she acted certain ways and said certain things because she was so hurt by her first husband. After a while that man told one of her friends, “She’s so focused on her past that she can’t move forward. We're not making any connection, so I've decided to stop seeing her.” Because she was stuck in the past, she missed an opportunity for her future.
It’s easy to get so weighed down with emotional baggage that’s full of pain and heartache that we lose our passion and excitement for living. Can I tell you that you need to refresh your emotional baggage every morning? You need to learn to travel light because where you’re going is far more important than where you’ve been. You’re not going to be able to walk through open doors until you close the doors that are behind you. When you’re holding on to bitterness, regrets, and the mistakes you’ve made, you’ll get stuck.
I want to remind you today to spend your time investing in your future, not in the past. Investing in the past is when you relive your pains and disappointments, focusing on who hurt you, what didn’t work out, and the mistakes you’ve made. That’s a waste of time and energy. You can’t do anything about what happened in your past—it’s over with. But you can do something about today. When you focus on what you can change, and not on what you can’t change, that is a good investment in the future.
We weren’t designed to carry around negative emotional baggage, and yet, we sometimes fill our bags with bitterness, resentment, and heartache. Too often we let those negatives define our life. We open that old bag and just see all that dirty stuff from way back when. When you are weighed down with all that junk, it’s hard to see where you’re going or to even be ready to get there. God wants you to empty that stuff out and receive His beauty. You have to get up every day and let that stuff go. Forgive the people who offended you. Release them. Forgive yourself. Decide that it’s time to put your foot down and say, “I’m not letting my past hinder my future.” Put it in the past, let it go, and shut the door to it.
It’s easy to get so weighed down with emotional baggage that’s full of pain and heartache that we lose our passion and excitement for living. Can I tell you that you need to refresh your emotional baggage every morning? You need to learn to travel light because where you’re going is far more important than where you’ve been. You’re not going to be able to walk through open doors until you close the doors that are behind you. When you’re holding on to bitterness, regrets, and the mistakes you’ve made, you’ll get stuck.
I want to remind you today to spend your time investing in your future, not in the past. Investing in the past is when you relive your pains and disappointments, focusing on who hurt you, what didn’t work out, and the mistakes you’ve made. That’s a waste of time and energy. You can’t do anything about what happened in your past—it’s over with. But you can do something about today. When you focus on what you can change, and not on what you can’t change, that is a good investment in the future.
We weren’t designed to carry around negative emotional baggage, and yet, we sometimes fill our bags with bitterness, resentment, and heartache. Too often we let those negatives define our life. We open that old bag and just see all that dirty stuff from way back when. When you are weighed down with all that junk, it’s hard to see where you’re going or to even be ready to get there. God wants you to empty that stuff out and receive His beauty. You have to get up every day and let that stuff go. Forgive the people who offended you. Release them. Forgive yourself. Decide that it’s time to put your foot down and say, “I’m not letting my past hinder my future.” Put it in the past, let it go, and shut the door to it.