Today I will:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
What a gift a new day can be. Regardless of the past, the sun always rises on a new day, even if clouds veil it. And with it comes the promise of starting anew the race set before us. Each new day presents us with the opportunity to set aside whatever happened the day before and again put one foot in front of the other towards our goals and dreams. Yet often before we have the strength to press ahead, we must look behind us and ask forgiveness for the mistakes and excesses of the days before so that we have nothing hindering us as we move forward:
Psalm 103:12 NIV tells us: ''.As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." In other words, when God forgives us of past mistakes, He also forgets them. As Corrie ten Boom once said, such sins are "now cast into the deepest sea and a sign is put up that says, 'NO FISHING ALLOWED.'" What is past is past with Him. If we choose to fish our sins out again and let them hinder us, that is our doing, not His.
Obviously for the writer of this passage in Hebrews, the key to accomplishing whatever is before us, no matter how intense or unpleasant it may be, is to learn to put past mistakes behind and not let them trip us up again - as we move forward. Of course, doing so also means not letting those same mistakes trip us up again in the future. Thus we can move forward towards what He has set before us, unhindered and unburdened. Only in His forgiveness is the true freedom to succeed.