Copyright 2023 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Sometimes, we grieve the past. This is not necessarily about losing loved ones, the loss of a marriage, or even a specific trauma that took place.
We can grieve the deferred dream, the unrealized expectations of relationships we invested so much in, the things we have never experienced, the depth of joy we have never known, or even the hope for a deep, abiding familial love never came our way.
We can even grieve regret – opportunities we let slip through our fingers like a wild wind.
Solomon said, “Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Don’t long for the good old days. This is not wise” (Ecc 7:10).
Facing Truth
Longing for the past or wishing there was a do-over is a tell-tell sign that “present heaviness” could be lingering here. You see, we all understand the trauma of today and the impact of unexpected brokenness as we move along in life.
But sometimes, in the “core of us,” there’s this mountain of pain that slowly seeps to the surface, keeping our eyes off “the promise of hope for the moment” and fixated on what is unspoken within.
Our Father wants to heal this place in us with no name, mile marker, or particular face holding it. He was to take its invisibility away, shine light in its depths and set us free.
Listen, WE CAN GRIEVE for things in us that have no name. It is that place where piles and piles of disappointment have come to sit for a while… and torment the soul when there is nothing to occupy the mind.
It’s Time To Let God
I heard Father say: NOW IS YOUR MOMENT TO LET THIS KIND OF GRIEF GO AND ALLOW YOUR JOY TO RISE IN HIM! THERE IS A JOY FOR YOU, A PEACE… AN INWARD UNDERSTANDING THAT “TIME” CAN NO LONGER CLAIM.
Isaiah 43:18-19 declares, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”
Isaiah 7:11 says, “Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those WHO SEE the sun.”
I heard Father say: THERE ARE NO GRIEF STAGES FOR YOU TODAY. INSTEAD, I AM GIVING YOU A SUPERNATURAL RESOLUTION. I AM TAKING THE ANGST FROM YOUR HEART, YOUR MIND, SON, DAUGHTER. I AM GIVING YOU CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS RIGHT NOW ON LETTING GO… AND THIS BUILDUP “OF UNFILLMENT” IS BROKEN IN THIS MOMENT IF YOU CAN BELIEVE OR RECEIVE IT. NO LONGER WILL THIS PLACE OF GRIEF BE THE THIEF IN YOUR LIFE.”
As I wrote this, I saw myself speaking these words: Receive! Receive! Receive what the Lord is doing IN YOU right now. Believe that you are no longer grieving the past. Amen.
