Let Go of the Failures

Written by Heather Shelley

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.  ~Hebrews 8:12 (NIV)

Happy New Year! I’m sure you’ve heard that quite a bit before you got here today, but I wanted to be counted among those that wish you much happiness and many blessings in 2013.

Resolutions are horrible, in my opinion. To me, it seems like you keep looking backwards when you make a resolution…like you’re trying to run forward, but you keep looking over you shoulder to see just how far you’ve gotten from the thing you’ve resolved to avoid this year.

This is where, to me, the resolution becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. Once we do fail because we’ve been looking backwards at that thing we’re trying to avoid, we give ourselves permission to beat ourselves up for failing. And since we failed, we might as well just give up. We can try again next New Year’s Eve, right?

How far do you think you could run dragging a boulder? Can you run a marathon lugging that thing around? When you don’t finish the marathon dragging that boulder, will you beat yourself up because you failed?

I think we use resolutions as faulty measuring sticks – we use them to measure our “success” at not failing. Seems a bit wonky. If you think about it, we’re packing failures and mistakes on top of failures and mistakes and then dragging the whole lot around.  We’re exhausting ourselves trying to run away from the very things we’re dragging around every day.

You made bad choices. You made mistakes. You failed. Maybe people made fun of you. Maybe some people rejected you. Maybe someone got sick of you making the same mistakes over and over again and just walked away.

People do that. We’re human.

But, Christ will never turn away from you.

There is one catch: You have to be willing to let go of that boulder of failures and mistakes you’ve been dragging around, and lay that hunk of junk right there at the feet of Jesus.

You realize that He can’t make you do that, right?

Your Mamma can’t make you. Your honey can’t make you. Your kids can’t make you.

Taking off the yoke you’ve used to burden yourself to that boulder is a decision you have to make.

You’ve heard that scripture a thousand times from Matthew 11 where it says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light”…here’s where it comes into play.

If you have two plow horses yoked up to a plow, if one is tired, the other horse picks up the slack and the plow still moves. The heaviest burden is picked up by the stronger horse so the weaker one isn’t overburdened.

Same thing here.

Christ comes along beside you and helps you with the burden of the heavy yoke you’ve tied onto your own neck. He puts His neck in there, too, to help take the load off of you. Your journey suddenly becomes easier and you can start looking up again…moving forward again.

I heard Steve Brown say the most amazing thing one morning:

“When Jesus Christ took your sins on the cross, God could no longer see your sins because your sins were buried in the depths of the sea. God cannot even remember your sins! Think of it! God cannot even remember! He has the ability to turn the tape recorder OFF. AND ERASE IT!”

The tapes that constantly play in your head – the ones that remind you what a failure you are and remind you of all your past mistakes – aren’t of God. That’s all you. And you can let go of all the reminders of your past failures and mistakes ANY TIME. You just have to be willing to let go of it. God’s grace and mercies are available to you any time – don’t torture yourself…until next New Year’s Eve.

“His great love is new every morning.  Lord, how faithful you are!”  ~Lamentations 3:23 (NIRV)