How to Find Freedom Through Forgiveness by Tony Evans O ne of the greatest ways that Satan keeps you from fulfilling all you were created to be is by keeping you looking at your past. Yet God invites you to look at your future ( Jeremiah 29:11). While the enemy says, “You can’t because of the damage that has been done!” God says, “You can, in spite of what has been done!” God will never define you by your past, but the enemy will try to confine you by it. Friend, never let your yesterday keep you from your tomorrow. Learn from yesterday, just don’t live in it. The Israelites struggled with the same thing after having escaped from a 430-year domination by the Egyptians. The Israelites had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them. As they sent the spies into the Promised Land, they stood on the precipice of a glorious tomorrow. But because they chose to focus on their past rather than overcoming the challenges in their tomorrow, they did not move forward. They opted for a rearview mirror outlook on life, rather than looking through the windshield of opportunity in front of them. When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, He not only delivered them from their past, but He also delivered them to their future—Canaan. Yet because they chose to be so focused on yesterday, they missed it. As a result, they were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years so God could disconnect them from their past. Many of us cannot get to our tomorrows because we are still carrying a connection to and baggage from our past. We cannot take the step into our future because we cannot even get through today. You may have been delivered from the offense, or offenses, you are struggling to forgive—but they hold just as much weight over you today because they have not yet been delivered from you. The Israelites stayed tethered to their past because they failed to let go and move on. It was a 35-day walk for the people of Israel to get from Egypt to Canaan. But what should have taken 35 days ended up taking 40 years because they kept looking back. Maybe that sounds familiar to you. Maybe you feel you should have been further in your life by now, further in your career, relationships, family, finances, or even in your continued on next page We Want You Free from Unforgiveness! See page 3 for details. Never let yesterday keep you from tomorrow. Forgive. continued from front page emotional and spiritual well-being. But instead, you keep looking back. You keep saying, “What if ?” “Why?” “But…” and everything else that can be said about yesterday. your wound nicely covered by your shirt, and someone accidentally brushed up against your wounded arm—you would jolt in pain and lash out at them. You fear that what happened to you has so shattered or altered you that you will never regain the hope you once knew. You fear that someone else has messed you up too much, stolen your future or your innocence. Unforgiveness has the same effect (Matthew 18:34). When the wounds in our souls are left untreated, they fester and rot. They create residual pain in other areas of our lives. Then even the slightest brush by someone else—even if they didn’t mean anything wrong at all—can cause us to react in ways we normally wouldn’t. We may lash out, accuse, blame, cry, or say and do things we regret. All the while the other person is caught off guard by such a reaction. Yesterday is real. I am not saying that yesterday isn’t real. What I am saying is that you need to stop looking at it so much that you miss out on today, and thus dim the light of your tomorrow. When someone has sinned against you, or you have committed sins that you regret, it is like a wound or a cut that has been made on your soul. If that wound is left untreated, it will fester and bacteria will begin to grow. For example, if you got a pretty nasty cut on your arm but didn’t clean it or care for it, in time that wound would start to ooze with puss, and the pain would increase. So much so that even if you were to go about your day with It was an awesome joy and privilege for me to preach the Palm Sunday Worship service to over 30,000 people at McLane Stadium at Baylor University. Over 100 churches joined together to proclaim Jesus as Lord and hundreds of people responded to the invitation to trust Christ or become full time followers and not just part-time Christians. I’m excited to be working with these churches for ongoing Kingdom impact beyond the event and we hope to do similar community-wide outreaches like this throughout the nation. pg 2 1-800-800-3222 In order to overcome unforgiveness, you need to treat your wounds, let them heal, and then take your focus off of your scars by putting it onto your new start. It’s a new day. Live in it. Take it one step at a time. One moment at a time. Keep your mind active in the present, not the past, and you will discover the ability—step by step—to move on. • 30,000 & Counting for Christ! We Want You Free from Unforgiveness! To thank you for your gift to The Urban Alternative this month, we’re excited to send you a copy of Dr. Tony Evans’ 6-message CD series, Freedom Through Forgiveness, AND his brand-new booklet, 30 Days to Victory Through Forgiveness. In this compassionate and powerful CD series, Dr. Evans examines relevant biblical passages on the importance of forgiveness. In addition, he has put together a day-by-day and step-by-step approach to walk you through the process of forgiving. Whether you need to forgive someone for something done long ago or recently, or whether you need to forgive yourself for past regrets—these helpful resources will give you the tools to get where you need to go. The CD series includes these messages: 4 How to Understand a Thorn 4 The Detours of Pardon 4 Forgive One Another 4 Freedom from Yesterday 4 Trusting God 4 The Pardon of Prayer Be sure to request these helpful resources on the enclosed reply form when you give today. And thank you for your support to help The Urban Alternative continue teaching truth and transforming lives. Woman to Woman After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and then 40 years of desert wandering, the Israelites stood at the cusp of the Promised Land, on the edge of their future. They had been waiting for this moment since Abraham’s time. Only a small issue separated them from walking into the homeland God had promised them for many years: a river. But not just any river. This was the River Jordan, and the Israelites stared as turbulent waters raged past them. Waters at flood stage overflowed the banks of the river, eating away at the shoreline, running in rivulets toward them. Joshua halted their fear and called on the faith of the children of Israel by telling them that as soon as the soles of the priests’ feet touched the water, the waters by Lois Evans would recede ( Joshua 3:13). The priests stepped out, and it was so. The waters peeled back and rose up in a pile upstream, and nearly 2 million people, their livestock and caravans crossed over the river on dry ground. Not muddy, soggy ground, but dry ground. From floods and mud to dry dirt, and millions of footsteps walking into freedom. God does not take halfway measures—not then, not now. God’s might and faithfulness would see Israel through rough waters and tough crossings. And He can do the same for you! Trust Him, even when what He says doesn’t make sense. • TonyEvans.org pg 3 You Are Making a Difference! Thank you for making the following testimonies possible through your support of The Urban Alternative! Dear Friend, Not too long ago, I went to my garage on my way to a meeting. Thinking nothing much of the normal routine I was in, I got in my car and pushed the garage door opener. Silence. The door stayed down. So I pushed the garage door opener again. But still nothing happened. This time I got out of my car and went to the button on the wall. Pushing it over and over again, I looked at the garage door that was now keeping me trapped in my own garage. It sat there closed, as if not wanting to be disturbed from its slumber. Glancing at my watch, I realized that if this garage door didn’t open soon—I would be late. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I don’t ever like to be late. Emotions of frustration began to build inside of me, as well as feelings of helplessness. The door was too heavy for me to lift, or I would have walked over to it and let myself out. The garage door equipment was too complicated for me to fix, or I would have fixed it. So I walked over to the phone number for the repairman posted next to the garage door. Giving him a call, he asked me to check the two red lights on each side of the door. “Are they in alignment?” he asked. I checked and quickly discovered they were not. The small box holding the red light on the right-hand side had gotten bumped somehow, and the two lights were no longer communicating with each other. So I got down on my knees. And then I nudged the right box back to where it belonged and pushed the garage door opener again. The door went up. Friend, unforgiveness is a weight that is too heavy to lift on your own. Likewise, it is too deep and too complicated for you to figure out how to set yourself free. Like a door that won’t go up to let you out, you remain trapped within yourself until you simply do one thing: Get down on your knees before the One who knows you best and align your heart, thoughts, and actions with Him. Someone else’s sin may have bumped you off the path of alignment with God by arousing within you your own sins of doubt, bitterness, regret, and hate… but if you will kneel before God, confess your sins that have come from a wrong response to what happened to you, and trust that He is sovereign and can use even the negative things in your life to take you to your perfect purpose, He will set you free. The door of doubt will rise, and you will reach your destiny. We want to help you on your way to freedom through forgiveness this month with a very special booklet I put together that will walk you through the process day by day for 30 days. It’s called 30 Days to Victory Through Forgiveness. It’s yours for your gift to the ministry of any amount. We will also include a new 6-message compilation specifically on this delicate topic of forgiveness called Freedom Through Forgiveness. Isn’t it time you were set free? Contact us today and request these resources as our way of saying thank you for helping us continue to broadcast the teaching of God’s Word to a world in need. For the King and His kingdom, Tony’s first book for kids! Available at TonyEvans.org pg 4 pastortonyevans @drtonyevans PO Box 4000 Dallas, TX 75208-0560 • 1-800-800-3222 • TonyEvans.org
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