What is keeping us from moving forward?
If we are like most people, there is something in our past that we are holding on to.
This could be a memory, a belief, a hurtful word spoken or words left unspoken. To move on, we need to let go of the past.
Kylo Ren told Rey that “The Empire, your parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi… let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you are meant to be.”
While it is difficult to take advice from someone that is portrayed as evil or at least on the side of evil, Kylo Ren is not wrong here.
Forsaking All Others
As believers, we need to let go of our past.
Jesus tells us in Luke 14:26 ““If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” He continues in verse 33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
That seems a clear message to let go of our past and follow Jesus.
Becoming Recreated
No matter what we did or who we were in the past, 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
When we become a new creation, our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven.
So what does it mean to be a new creation in Christ?
Does it mean we no longer sin?
Certainly not! But we are no longer slaves to sin.
As Paul writes in Romans 6:6-7 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
God is the Creator (Genesis 1:1), and it is God who recreates us, in Christ.
We are in a constant state of re-creation, sanctification (Hebrews 10:14) and will not fully be made perfect until we are in heaven.
Our Daily Lives
We are told by Jesus in Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
What will we let go of today so that we can be free in Christ?
