Psalms 46:10 “Be still (Release), and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth!”

We all have a past. All of us have things we are proud of and things we would prefer to forget. And yet most people carry around with them the memory of bad decisions, failures, and ungodly behavior – unwilling to forgive themselves let alone forget about them. When God tells us to “be still” (which from the Hebrew can also be translated ‘release’) he’s telling us, in effect: “Cut it loose! Let it go!” But he doesn’t just give a command – he tells us ‘how’ we can do it and ‘why’ we should do it. When God said to “know that I am God” what was he telling us? He wasn’t identifying who he was, rather he was assuring us that the reason we ‘can’ release our past is because he is more powerful, more merciful, more loving, more understanding, and more forgiving than anything we have been dragging around. “I am God” is his way of telling us: ‘I can handle it.’ Why should we do it? Because by letting go and letting him take care of it, he gets the glory. The praise and honor ends up where it belongs – with our Heavenly Father.

Prayer: “Heavenly Father, I didn’t realize that I was keeping you from being exalted and getting the glory and honor you so richly deserve by my unwillingness to release my past to you. It is an unnecessary burden I have carried for too long. Today I give it to you, Lord. I trust you to help me stay focused on the road ahead, which you have prepared for me, instead of my constantly looking backward and getting off track. To you be all glory, honor and praise, Father, in Jesus’ name – Amen”