Morning Prayer - The End of Looking Back

Lord, can today truly be the day when everything begins anew?

Lord, in all honesty, I sometimes look back and it seems that so many areas of my life have turned out poorly. I see mistakes, wrong decisions, and wounds I have caused to others and to myself. But in the quiet of this morning, You tell me that You are ready, and even desire, to give me a new beginning.

Your word cuts through the noise of my regret and doubt:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Lord, help me to perceive it today. Help me to see the sprouts of new life that You are planting in the cracks of my past. Therefore, today I make a decision. I no longer want to constantly look back.

I remember the Apostle Paul, a man with such a dark past, who persecuted Your people. And yet, he chose not to let his past control him. He forgot what was behind him and strained toward what was ahead.

I want to do that too, Lord. I choose to leave my past behind me. I do not want it to define or hold me back. Help me to bring an end of the thought spiral that pulls me into bitterness and regret.

I know that this new beginning is possible only because of Your incredible grace and forgiveness. Your promise is the anchor for my soul.

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

Thank You for not keeping my sins in Your memory. Thank You for simply erasing them and offering me a blank page on which I can begin to write a new story with You today.

But You do not just stop at forgetting. You go deeper, to the very core of my being, and there You perform a heart transplant.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Lord, please do this in me today. Take this heart of stone, weary from old resentments and hardened by disappointments. Give me a new, heart of flesh that will beat to the rhythm of Your love and be capable of trust. Help me to live without walls around the heart.

Now I understand what You meant, Jesus, when You said to Nicodemus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

Lord, I want to be born from above. Not someday, but now, in this moment. I want to see Your kingdom in the small things of this day; I want to see myself and others through Your eyes.

Therefore, I ask that this day not be marked by the shadows of yesterday, but by the promise of Your future for me.