Is It Really Hard to Say Good-Bye to Yesterday?

As the title of this post pondered in my heart, I had to wonder-is it really hard to say good-bye to yesterday? When we take a look back at all of "things" and "stuff" we've lost or forgotten about; what about the clothes that sit in our closet season after season after season that we only wear once, okay, maybe twice? What about the shoes that we bought for "that" outfit that is amongst the "you wore me one time-my season has passed yet again clothes"? What about those tons of t-shirts that you've been collecting since ET phoned home? BUT, when it comes time to depart with them, we suddenly name them our "favorites" and we continue to hold on to them. So...is it really hard to say good-bye to those clothes?

What about the boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife/significant other/life partner that is not so nice to you? He or she has failed to do the things that they started out doing to get you-dinner, movies, concerts, weekend get-aways, date nights, oh how they wooed you-and now, you're two couch potatoes. What about the verbal, mental, emotional, psychological, and sometimes physical abuse? Yet the excuses roll in-the home is taken care of, we're not struggling anymore, he saved me from myself, he/she really do love me, I brought it on myself, he/she is a good guy or girl. What about the broken relationship with a friend or relative that you continue to hold on to, just to save face or the hope that it will one day be like it was back then? Really...is it hard to say good-bye to those relationships?

When I ask the question, I am asking, "What are you holding on to"? It comes a time when we must release what hurts us. Be it physical or emotional, at some point, we must let go. I was thinking how a few years ago my church did the 40 Days of Prayer. It was a church-wide commitment. One of my prayers was revelation in my relationship. I asked God to show me if this is the man he'd intended me to spend the rest of my life with. Well, just like I asked, God showed me-not once but twice. The thing about it, I didn't want to see it. So just like Gideon (in the book of Judges), I went back and said, "Okay Lord, was that you?" Hmmmmm, isn't it funny how we're never ready for what God shows us when we ask? The next night I prayed the same prayer and the next morning, just like I asked, God put it right before my eyes. Now, I needed to know, "Father, how do I make this right before you? Help me in this unhealthy situation". Well, well, well. I went to work and came home to an empty house. I had to laugh at myself because I didn't have the strength to cry. I asked God to please help me. I was nearly begging. In the middle of my sleep, I was awakened by this statement: "Get up! You've been here before! What did you do then!" In other words, you've struggled before, you've been abandoned before (maybe not in this literal sense), you've been without and how did you do it then? Girl stop the nonsense. To answer my own question, "It is not hard to say good-bye to yesterday"!

What is your yesterday that you need to say good-bye to? What hurt is holding you hostage? What's in your closet that you need to sit out with the Salvation Army "stuff"? How many shoes are you no longer wearing-yet you're holding on, why? Yesterday should-in no way-keep you in bondage. Yesterday's mistakes. Yesterday's lies. Yesterday's unforgiveness. Yesterday's deceitfulness. Yesterday's sinful nature. Yesterday's malice. Yesterday's promiscuity. Yesterday's bad girl. Yesterday's bad boy. Yesterday is never to be seen again. So I challenge you, my friend, to find a way to clean out the closet of yesterday and get rid of the shoes you no longer wish to walk in. We live in our yesterdays never letting them go (just like those umpteen t-shirts we never wear) and yesterday becomes our today and it rolls over into our tomorrow. We walk with it, talk with it, sleep with it, eat with it, drive to work with it. It has consumed us and we are no longer living in today and for tomorrow, but existing in yesterday. The sad reality is that we've failed to recognize yesterday because it's hidden beneath those shirts that we wear today or it's tucked away behind that pretty little dress we're wearing to our friend's birthday party. It may even be under the bed with those shoes that you would "just die" if you didn't get them right then-at that very moment.

What do you need to Arise! and go and handle? It's never too late and it not too hard to say good bye to yesterday.