Today now is. The mistakes, sins, boo boos of yesterday are over. Absolutely! Learn from them but also learn from the positives as well – and accentuate those. The not so positives and sins – run to Jesus and even if you’ve committed them before – remember 1 John 1:9 which gives a way to reestablish relationship. Let these be a check, reminder of what happened but never let it define you because that is the foundation of how you share you.
Yesterday is a lesson not an identity. But that is your choice. I see very little value in hitting yourself over and over – learn, apply your understanding but stop there. Remember that when you seek forgiveness from Him then that sin no longer exists, it’s been removed as far as the east is from the west [Psalms 103:12].
Just as an aside… why not build on the positive successes in the day as well? Or does that sound like bragging and bragging is always a no-no? Part of the problem when we only use our failures, our sins as our ‘teachers’ we have only part of the picture. There are very few that are all bad and evil (though some do exist) and neither are we. How WE see ourselves is critical to how we build a relationship with the Triune God. No matter how He sees us, ultimately we determine so much of the developing relationship because of our definition of our identity. of who we are.
Even better is the realization that much of the ‘blank sheet’ is based in being forgiven and accepting this. (Do remember that you have to have forgiven others who may have – deliberate or unintentional – hurt us: Matthew 6:14-15.) I know that we may have difficulty accepting our forgiveness.
Part of difficulty may be based in the disappointment we have in ourselves. We had a test that we failed… so we’re going to have to face it again. Or maybe it was a missed opportunity to encourage someone. There can be multiple reasons that we hang on to those pre today disappointments and they can discourage… but they never should be an excuse.
The point of forgiveness is the ability to grow from our mistakes and sins, to resolve to improve (though we may be in that class of needing to be forgiven 70 times 7). While there is little excuse for deliberate sins, mistakes we can even be forgiven from them – 1 John 1:9. I believe that if your mindset is to be pleasing to the Lord that He will honor this by helping us to become the person He’s always seen.
In so many ways, not just forgiveness but the acceptance of forgiveness is the platform, resulting in that ‘the every day is a blank sheet’ is our opportunity. We can act on this … or not.
