Recently I had the privilege to talk and pray with a kind Christian lady where I was speaking. This sincere believer wondered if one decision in her past would prevent her from ever knowing God’s blessing. What a joy came over her countenance as we spoke about the God who rules the good and overrules the evil. The eternal God is simultaneously in our past, our present, and our future, and He has much more for His children.

We all get stuck on life’s journey at the last thing we refuse to get over. A disappointment. An unkind word. A failure. A wound from someone we love. A rejection. It could be anything – anything we allow to become the only thing that matters. How quickly and how easily we get weighed down with the luggage of life and begin to drag baggage that God never gave us grace to carry. (Read more about that here.)

It is time to get past your past. It is time to move on.

Moses had to lead others to move on. God said to him in Deuteronomy 2:3, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.” There is a moment when you have to say: ENOUGH! There is no profit in rehashing the past and endlessly replaying the details in your mind. Telling the story again won’t make you feel any better. You are only going round and round in circles like the children of Israel. It is time to move on.

Samuel had to learn it himself. He wept and grieved for the tragedy of what King Saul had become. “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons” (1 Samuel 16:1). It is time to move on.

David had to live it. He had fasted and prayed and begged for the life of his child, and now the baby has died. Immediately David got up, bathed himself, worshipped God, and had a meal. No one could understand it! “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:22-23). It is time to move on.

The four leprous men eventually had to launch out to do it. In their own words, “…they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?” (2 Kings 7:3). It was only as they abandoned their present circumstances and abandoned themselves to the God who holds the future that they discovered the great miracle provision God had for them and others. Get up and launch out. Forward! It is time to move on.

This principle is not only true of evil things in your past; it is also true of good things. Some people spend their time living on yesterday’s memories and miss God’s present tense work. Israel could not live on yesterday’s manna – it bred worms and stank. God has something for us each day as we trust and obey. Every day is the time to move on.

Yes, there are times of rejoicing and celebration or of mourning, regret, and reflection…but then, there is a time to stop looking to a past that you cannot change and begin to look to the future. May God give you fresh grace today to move beyond yesterday. There is always a tomorrow for the child of God.