Welcome back! If you are just joining us, we are using the YouVersion Bible App to follow a devotional together. Read THIS POST to get all the information you need to join in and then you can read THIS MORNING’S POST to see the promises we are focusing on this week.

Did you get a chance to spend some time with this week’s promises? This week I had no trouble choosing a verse. That doesn’t happen very often! It’s not that the other verses weren’t good – they are great! But the verse I chose immediately jumped out at me. Ready to find out which one it is?

When you decide to walk away from your sinful life – I’ll erase those sins. You’ll be so joyful!

Do you have something in your past that keeps invading your mind? Something that still makes you feel guilty even thought you’ve turned from it? This promise is for you!

God doesn’t hold on to our sin. He doesn’t keep it just out of the way until He decides to rub it in our faces or even just wave it in front of us as a reminder of how we failed in the past. He wipes it away. Removes it as far as the East is from the West. Makes us a new creation. Amazing. What an incredible God we have.

I’ve been there with thoughts of past mistakes. Things that I’ve done that I’m ashamed of and when I want to tell my story, to encourage someone else, those thoughts creep in and tell me I’m not good enough to help someone else. That I’m less than and shouldn’t share. I’ve been shamed into silence by my own brain!

But God offers freedom from sin. Freedom from past mistakes. You are not defined by the mistakes you made twenty years ago, ten years ago, one year ago, or yesterday. By repenting, admitting you were wrong and turning to God, you are forgiven and have a clean slate! Those sins are gone, never to be brought up again.

But what if they do?

If you find yourself thinking about those mistakes, the sins in your past, I encourage you to do the following:

1. Acknowledge the thoughts

Don’t try and stuff them away and pretend they don’t exist. I swear that makes them crop up more often! Instead acknowledge that they are there.

2. Claim the freedom and forgiveness you have in Christ

Find a verse (like today’s!) and claim it for yourself. Say something like, “I have turned from this sin and am not defined by it. God has wiped it away forever.” And believe it!

3. Pray for a refreshing

This verse says that the Lord will bring “times of refreshing.” He wants to renew your mind, give you good thoughts, His thoughts, so you can experience what it feels like to be made new.

Are you struggling with thoughts like this? Can I pray for you? You don’t need to tell me what the thoughts are – that’s between you and God. But I would love to pray for a renewing of your mind. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email at myjoyinchaos@gmail.com.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this promise today. I thank you that you offer forgiveness that is complete and keeps no track record of wrong doings. I pray that You would free us from any thoughts that dwell on former choices and sins. Fill us with the faith we need to believe that we are cleansed and forgiven. That we are a new creation in You. In Jesus name, Amen.