A personal past We all have one.

"My beloved speaks to me:  Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come..."   Song of Solomon 2:10-12
 
 
A personal past.  We all have one.  And sometimes they are not very glorious.  In some cases, painful pasts are consequences of our bad choices.  Self-inflicted wounds.
 
Often however, the heartaches from the past has been caused by others.  Betrayal.  Unfaithfulness.  Deceit.  Broken trust.  Slander.  Needle-pointed thorns that have lodged in our hearts and festered into ugly infected wounds.  It is impossible to reach and stretch for the future when we live in the pain of the past. 
 
Make a bridge over your past.  Release it.  Work through it.  Stretch for the future and be fruitful.  The beauty of a past that has been healed is expressed in our Scripture text for today.  "My beloved speaks to me:  Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come..."
 
The past isn't your past if it is still affecting your present.
 
Prayer:
Lord, help me to look beyond my present circumstance in order to gain a better view of what lies ahead.  Whatever mistakes I've made are behind me, forgiven and of no help to my future.  I release them now and thank You for new beginnings.  In the name of Jesus I count it as done.  Amen.

By Bishop Bernard Williams