As we continue to think about "Peace In The Home", I want to focus once again on the text verse of Philippians 4:7. That wonderful scripture states that, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus". It is my honest belief that most people want to have peace both in their hearts and in their homes. These two important places must ex-perience peace if we are to enjoy the life God has given us to live. I have already noticed in previous Marital Moments that to have peace in your home you must Put God First In Your Home and you must Focus On The Really Important Things in your home. Today's topic will focus on this important thought: To have peace in your home you must Release The Past. In Philippians 3:13 Paul makes an interesting statement when he says, "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before". The word forget means to neglect. Forget in this Biblical passage means to no longer be influenced with or affected by the past. You and I are not able to forget by putting things out of our mind. We will always have a conscious memory of the beautiful moments of life as well as the terrible times of life. However, we can chose no longer to allow the past to influence the present moments of our life. Perhaps Hebrews 10:17 can help us with this thought. There the Bible states that, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more". God is not having a bad memory lapse. God is saying I will no longer hold their sins against them. Their iniquities will no longer affect their standing with Me or influence my attitude toward them. Now I know that you and I are not God. Neither do we possess His great depth of love, mercy, compassion, and grace. Yet we must make the difficult and sometimes painful choice to release the past and to forgive the offending person. Perhaps all of us have things in our past that we had rather forget or leave in the past. Sadly the skeletons in the closet rattle loudly in night. Some past sin that was committed that haunts you. A failure in your life. Harsh words spoken in haste. A bad, terrible deed done that today you deeply regret it with all your heart. Perhaps you are the one that has been sinned against. Someone has cheated on you, lied about you, abused you, abandoned you, or divorced you and you find it extremely painful to think about or to forget about and go on with your life. These things are just some of the painful memor-ies that lie uneasy in your heart and rise unmercifully into your conscious thoughts on a daily basis. However, you must release the past. You cannot change the past no matter how much you wish it could be changed or done away with al-together. The past will always be there. But you can do as Paul did in Philip-pians 3:13 you can chose to neglect the past and not allow it to influence or control you in the present. You must stop living in the past. Stop dragging up the past. Stop pointing to the past. If it is confessed to God and forsaken then go forward with God's good help. Make a determined decision to release the past. Let go of all the sin and iniquity, all the hurt, pain, sorrow, anger, and bitterness. Let go of all the wrongs done. The bitter words said. Remember, no matter what yester-day was you can rise triumphantly today. You don't have to live in the past. Listen to the words of Ephesians 4:32, "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you". If God has forgiven you then live as a forgiven son or daughter of God. Forgive yourself of the wrongs done in the past. The wrongs you have committed that have hurt your spouse or family then sincerely and honest apologize and seek their for-giveness. Remember, if you would have "Peace In Your Home" you must Release The Past.
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