Wrestling with God

I've said this before and it begs repeating but we must take our past, the good, bad, the ugly and face The Lord over it. Even if we wrestle in the word to "feel" forgiven we must wrestle. The Lord knew every sin you and me would commit before the foundation of the world. He sent His Son to atone for our sins yet so many refuse the peace He offers or live with what feels like a Scarlett letter tattooed on their chest. When The Lord met with the Samaritan woman at the well (I could teach a whole series on that lol) He told her everything about her and she ran to tell others about this Man, the Christ that she encountered and she was excited about it!  Jesus gave that woman, a Samaritan, a woman looking for love in all the wrong places, dignity. He will change your name proverbially speaking and robe you in garments of white, not keep you bound in grave clothes. Which brings me to the point. We are NEVER EVER as much as we want to...called to forget our past. Paul was saying,  forgetting what was behind, which were his past achievements mainly. So we can't live off of yesterday's relationship with The Lord. It has to be day to day. Yet when we've wrestled with God over the past and He does not condemn us, then who can? So, again I bring up this Hebrew word picture of a man rowing in a canoe backwards (please visualize) into the future but very much focused on his past. If we don't remember the quarry from which we were mined from we will not gain a lick of wisdom and we are likely to be the fool repeating his/her folly. We can't go back and undo what's done but we can pull something beautiful from the trash and do things different the next time. With the LORD is unfailing love and full redemption.  It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!! Don't ever forget the pit He has pulled you from.