By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
As believers in Christ graced the first Sunday church service of the year, the vision bearer and founder of God’s Greater Grace General Assembly Intl Incorporated, Benin, Rev Sunny Akenbor, has charged them to lay aside their past which portends as excess luggage and embrace the future with open arms, high hopes and optimism.
He gave the charge in Benin City while speaking on the topic: “God will do a new thing in your life this year” during the Sunday church service.
Rev. Akenbor said some believers hold onto the misfortune they suffered many years ago in their hearts without letting them go adding that, these eventually hampered and served as a clog in the wheel of progress in their lives.
Akenbor who read from the book of Isaiah 43 :18-19, said God Himself abhors holding onto the past giving room to His promises of doing a new thing in their lives.
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”, Isaiah 43:18-19
He said God Himself also told Samuel to get over his past and face the reality of life which is before and ahead of him.
“And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons”, I Samuel 16:1.
The founder of the church, said letting go of the past is the creation of room for a new beginning but allowing both past and present situations to co-exist, is very detrimental even to ones health.
The renowned clergyman, said the new year should be seen as a new start in their lives despite what they have suffered in the past.
He said why they must let go of the past is that, there is nothing new under the sun. For whatever they may have gone through in life, others have had their fair share before and have freed themselves off the shackles and have moved on with their lives.
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun”, Ecclesiastes 1:9.
He urged them to take hold of the present, maximize it to the glory of God, noting that, a bird in hand, worth millions in the bush.
He reminded believers that everyday, year, season and out of season is the same but the only thing that creates a distinction in them is the decision taken either right or wrong.
He said the decision is theirs urging them to take the right decision which is, letting go of their past.
He further said why they must let bygones be bygones is that, God has a great future for them as He said in the book of 1 Corinthians 2:9, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Moreso that great obstacles, give birth to great miracles and that they faced a particular challenge in the past is not a yardstick that they have to face it all over again.
The clergyman further prayed for God’s protections, blessings and the ability to let go of the past upon the members of the church just as he prayed for the peace and stability of the nation, Nigeria.