Is your future dictated by your past?  Well, you would think so by the way most people act.  If you look at their past behavior, you can most likely predict their future.  Is that the way it SHOULD be?  No, but that’s the way it usually is.  So, is there a cure?  That depends.  The CURE is CHRIST JESUS, but it’s like taking medicine.  If you’re sick and you are one to take medicine, what good will the medicine do if you don’t take it?
   The apostle Paul made a noteworthy statement in Philippians 3:13-14:
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
   Here is a vital key to changing your future.  Sure, you may have made mistakes in your past.  Welcome to the club, we all have.  But do you spend your time dwelling in the past, and reliving the past?  If so, your past is not only your past, but your present, and future as well.  I’ve known people who made financial mistakes by mismanaging their money, time after time, and though they want to prosper, they never do.  Why is that?  Well, for one thing, they aren’t willing to turn loose of the past, and they aren’t willing to make changes in the way they do things, even though they recognize the need to. 
   It has been said, if you’re a farmer and you’re sick and tired of harvesting corn, then plant something else.  If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.  Well, some people are satisfied with what they’ve always had, or at least they aren’t motivated to change.  Oh, they complain about how hard things are, but they aren’t sufficiently “sick and tired” of being sick and tired to do things differently.  For those people, their past dictates their future.  But I’m not one of those people.  I was sick, and Jesus had the cure.  But the “cure” required change in every area of my life, what I thought about, what I believed, what I said, and how I lived.
   The “cure”, that is, CHRIST JESUS, requires that I take His medicine many times a day, every day from now on.  Do you know what?  Many people take medicine for an infection for example, for a couple days and they start to feel better and so they stop taking the medicine instead of taking it for the full course.  What happens? The infection returns with a vengeance and this time it isn’t so easy to get rid of.  And that happens in spiritual matters as well.  Let me explain.
   As Paul said, we must realize we haven’t “arrived”. But he didn’t remain in the patterns of the past that were unfruitful to him, but rather reached out to Christ Jesus, and kept his eyes on the prize, and forgetting the past, pressing in daily to the new life in Christ Jesus.  Did that mean everything changed overnight?  No, it’s always a process, that is, you keep doing it if you want the results to come forth.  You don’t just worship Jesus once and that’s it, you’re all fixed up.  Like medicine, you take it until you’re well, and as most of you know that take medicine, once you’re on it, you’re most likely on it from now on.
   Move on is what this article is called.  Moving on is HARD for most people, and whether you realize it or not, most people resist change, even when it’s necessary to save their life.  Smokers know they need to quit, but will they?  No, most would rather die, not that they would come right out and say so, but their actions give them away.  They just aren’t sufficiently motivated to stop what is killing them!!  Can you believe that?  Most drug addicts know they need to quit, will they?  And most people living in the hurt of the past know they need to forgive and move on, but WILL THEY??
   It is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  Here is the so-called “acid test”: if all things AREN’T new, then you aren’t in Christ.  Boy, that’s a hard one to swallow, but it’s true, for Christ Jesus DOES make you a new creature, but only if you forsake the past.  I said YOU MUST FORSAKE YOUR PAST in order to be a new creature in Christ Jesus, in other words, MOVE ON!!  Let loose of those hurts, forgive those who hurt you, just as Christ Jesus has forgiven YOU,( not that YOU had anything He needed to forgive YOU for though, right?)
   I remember once as a child being chased by a rattle snake that I stumbled across in the woods near my home.  I’m not sure how far it pursued me, but believe me, I didn’t waste time remaining where I was, nor was I looking back!  I ran all the way home, and ran in the door and slammed it, thinking that snake was right on my heels.  That snake may have only pursued me a few feet, but I wasn’t hanging around long enough to find out.  Well, your past that you think is hot on your heels most likely stopped chasing you a long, long time ago, but you’re constantly going back and looking for it, inviting it to chase you some more, aren’t you?  And so your future keeps being shaped by your past.  Know how to stop that from happening?  MOVE ON!
   Moving on; I carried MANY hurts in my life, so I can well imagine you have your share, too.  It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself, no, life isn’t always fair, in fact, more often it isn’t.  But that isn’t the point.  Life’s road is full of chuck holes.  Do you know how they got there?  Mostly from the road being overloaded and abused.  Jesus doesn’t want you to be overloaded and over-burdened, in fact, He invites you right now to cast ALL your burdens upon Him, once and for all!  In other words, give them to Him, and walk away from them.  No, RUN and don’t look back.
   Know how to have a smoother ride?  Fill those chuck holes and ruts with all those hurts you’re carrying around.  Picture yourself on the road of life, shoveling your truckloads of hurts into the chuckholes FROM THE FRONT OF THE TRUCK, leaving the road nice and level IN FRONT OF YOU.  Never mind the past, it’s behind you and you won’t be going there again anyway.  The road in FRONT of you is the important one, and only YOU determine how smooth that one will be.  Yes there will be bumps and hazards in the way, but the Holy Spirit will guide you.  Yes, you will hit some bumps from time to time.  Hey, it’s life, remember?  But if you’re building a road, do you build it full of chuck holes?  Not if you have any sense.  So why would you build YOUR road with chuck holes from your past?  Do what Paul said, forget the past, stop letting it dictate your future.
   Your past is dead in Christ Jesus, your sins are forgiven, and let that old man who died STAY dead and press into your NEW life in Christ Jesus.  Become that new creature that Christ Jesus died to make you.  MOVE ON!  You’ll be glad you did.  And so will those who know you.