Memories. We all have them. They have the power to make us happy, sad, depressed, or excited. God gave us memories to help us remember what has happened in the past so that they may, in some way, affect our current behavior.

However, some memories are too painful to bear. Some memories bring to mind things that make us wish we had no memory at all. These memories tie us down to pain, guilt, sorrow, fear and deep sadness. They keep us in the dark by retracting us into insecurity, and worry.

Sometimes, these memories become like an addiction.

We can’t stop thinking about them because in a sick and twisted way Satan has used them to keep a foothold on our life. We go back to our memory and remember them because we think that by thinking about these memories they will in some way heal us, or make us feel better.

When you go through a relationship and it leaves you scarred instead of blissfully happy, you go back and relive those moments of happiness during your relationship. You think and rethink the situation over and over again, trying to think about where you went wrong and how you could have made things right. Or maybe you’ve done something that you knew was just W.R.O.N.G yet you did it anyway. Now, you can’t escape the memory that keeps bringing to mind your failure. Perhaps you’ve lost someone who was incredibly dear to you and you can’t let go of the pain you felt when they were taken away.

These memories feel like wounds that keep reopening and never heal.

But there is hope. There is a way to be rid of these memories that only bring us down and keep us living in the past. We need help. We can’t do it ourselves. If we try to stop hurtful memories from flooding our thoughts day and night we will just get weary and give up. We need the help of our Savior.

If we are to rid ourselves of hurtful memories we must first confirm in our minds, truthfully, that we want to be rid of them. We need to see that they are hurting us, bringing us down, and keeping us from growing in our walk with the Lord and from experiencing freedom. Do we really want to be free? Are we ready to release these memories and being a growth period?

Next, if you are serious about getting rid of these hurtful memories than you need to take them to the cross. Admit that these memories are bringing you down and that you are tired of them. Lay them at Jesus’ feet and tell Him all about them. Maybe you have hidden anger towards God for allowing these things to happen to you. Tell Him about that too.

Just be honest.

We need to know how powerful memories can be and how the devil can use them to make us walk in our old sin nature. Hold these memories in open hands to release them to Jesus. Surrender your hurt, your pain, guilt and sorrow to the Lord. When we do this He is faithful to heal us. The more we catch ourselves remembering these harmful memories and surrender them to Jesus the more we will notice that He is taking those memories and exchanging them for His comfort.

Jesus knows our pain. He has experienced everything we have only ten fold! Pain-He’s been there. Loneliness-felt that. Sorrow-experienced it to the extreme. He knows how we feel. Sometimes, I think that no one understands me-no one knows what I’m going through. But we can all be assured that Jesus fully and incomprehensibly understands us in all of our complexities. He knows the memories that are plaguing you. He died for them.

When we bring our old memories to Jesus and surrender them to Him we can know that He has already taken them away. He crucified them on the cross when He died for us. He died for our freedom from sin. He died for our freedom from guilt, pain, fear, and yes, even freedom from hurtful memories.

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:3-4

Recognizing our memories that hurt us is a good thing.

Because when we choose to recognize them and give them over to God we get to experience a part of our relationship with God that would not have ever known otherwise. It becomes a special time between us and our Savior. We feel hurt so we come to God with remembrances that we don’t want to deal with anymore. So He takes them gently from our hands and gives us peace, reassurance and comfort.

Jesus becomes the anchor for our soul. We will not be moved. We will not be swept away by the sea of tormenting memories of our past. We will be anchored in Him:

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever…” Hebrews 6:19

Time of course heals all things but who is the creator of time? Who is the author of our lives? God mends everything. God heals all things. His Resurrection is proof that death and time can be conquered! He invites us to be conquerors with Him! Will you hand over your past, your painful memories and become a conqueror in life with God the Most High? This coming Resurrection (Easter) Sunday think of your past and pain as having died on the Cross with Jesus and Him defeating that pain and rising in glory ad rising in your heart! It’s a new day. A new life in Christ. A new way to live in victory.

^” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39

-Will you give over your hurtful memories to Christ?
-Do you keep reopening wounds that Jesus is trying to heal in your life?
-Do you want to be rid of them once and for all?
-Let us know what you think!

Have a beautiful week. God bless.