God can cancel your past (1)

Jesus ‘cancelled the record of the charges against us…by nailing it to the cross.’ The word ‘cancel’ means to remove, to neutralise, to offset something. Have you ever got most of the way through a project and wished you could start it again? Imagine you were painting your room, and you stepped back and looked at the colour on the sample chart. But disappointingly, on the wall it doesn’t look the same, and you wish you could redo it. Many of us feel that way about life, as one author describes it: ‘I’ve made so many mistakes. I wish I could just wipe them out and start over.’ Failures, problems, bad decisions – we’ve all suffered from them. But some people can’t let go of the past and end up letting their past limit their present opportunities. They live in a constant state of regret, continually lamenting, “If only I hadn’t done that” or “If only I had made these changes.” They constantly hesitate and second-guess themselves. And they’re tormented by painful memories. “I blew it, and I’m going to be paying for it for the rest of my life.”’  Maybe you’re carrying guilt, but you don’t have to! The moment you put your trust in Christ, He ‘cancels the record’ of your past. Actually, you no longer have a past, you only have a future! Once and for all, you can lay down your heavy load of guilt, old hurts, and memories of mistakes. Jesus ‘took it away by nailing it to the cross’. God has promised to ‘blot out your sins…and will never think of them again’ (Isaiah 43:25 NLT). And you can do the same!