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52 Weeks of ForwardSample

52 Weeks of Forward

DAY 1 OF 365

Drop That Weight!

By Pastor Dale Oquist

"Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new." 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEV)

Imagine walking down a pier and seeing someone tied to a weight pulling them into the water. You dive in and swim as fast as you can, going deeper until you arrive at the person bound to the weight. You work at the knots as you feel your breath running out. Determined to save them, even if it means risking your own life, you finally get the knots loose. At last, you free them!

As you both resurface, you take deep breaths and suck in oxygen. You attempt to ask them if they’re okay, but they swim back to the bottom and grab the weight, trying to pull it up. After they resurface again, you ask, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” You are "flabbergasted" by their response when they say, “It’s okay; it’s my weight. I’ve carried it with me all my life.” You would think this person is a FOOL! Yet, we do the same thing. Our past is a weight that drags us down into the ocean of our sins. We have been SAVED, freed of our sins.

Yet we still hold on to our weight because it is ours. OUR past. We own it. We have allowed our past to define us, but the Bible says the incredible power of Jesus Christ has REDEFINED us. We are His children.

You have been saved, rescued, and redeemed! Stop holding on to the weight of your sin. It is a burden too difficult for you to bear. Christ bore it on the cross and paid for it. Our past no longer matters; God has defined our future through Christ Jesus.

When we belong to Christ, we are a new person. Embrace that grace, the gift you did not earn. The Bible says you are a coheir with Christ and will share in His glory. Stop holding on to the past that dragged you toward death. Let it go, and embrace your identity as a child of the King of Kings!

MOVING FORWARD

Are you weighed down? Write down the things you’ve done wrong and apologize to those you may have hurt. Then take your sins and throw them away. Forget them. God has already done so.

Day 2

About this Plan

52 Weeks of Forward

We want to equip and encourage you to take what God has done in your life and pay it forward to someone else. Invite a friend to join you in this yearlong, chronological plan through the Bible. We crafted a weekly devo...

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We would like to thank Peoples Church for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://www.peopleschurch.org

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