Do you try to find healing by looking in your rearview mirror? When you do this, you’re more likely to crash than heal. Focusing on whatever happened in your past that’s making you seek healing won’t lead you in the right direction.

In the story of Job, we discover how to get rid of painful memories and move on with our lives: “Put your heart right, Job. Reach out to God . . . Then face the world again, firm and courageous. Then all your troubles will fade from your memory, like floods that are past and remembered no more” (Job 11:13, 15-16 GNT).

First, put your heart right. You do what’s right—no matter what the other person has done to you. Forgiveness is always the right choice.

Second, reach out to God. Invite Jesus into every “room” in the house of your heart. You may have invited him into the front room (accepted Jesus as your Savior) but not the other rooms in your heart.

Third, face the world again. Don’t hide in a shell or withdraw to avoid getting hurt again. Move forward. Learn to live again.

Your past is not your future. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, the people you’ve done it with, or how long you’ve done it. Throughout Scripture, God forgave murderers, adulterers, and slackers, and he used them to do his work in the world.

You, too, have a great future ahead of you. Put your heart right, reach out to God, and face the world again.

And then let God do something incredible through you.