Good Riddance Day! Giving Ourselves A Fresh Start

Posted on January 4, 2019

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Good Riddance Day! Giving Ourselves A Fresh Start

(preached on 30 December 2018)

Psalm 103: 7-19
The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.He does not punish us for all our sins; He does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.For His unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him”


Since 2006 a group of people have celebrated an unusual event around the New Year. It’s called Good Riddance Day. Based on a Latin American tradition, individuals write down unpleasant, embarrassing memories and bad issues from the past year and throw them into an industrial-strength shredder.  Or some take a sledgehammer to their good riddance item.

The writer of Psalm 103 goes beyond suggesting that people say good riddance to unpleasant memories. He reminded us that God bids good riddance to our sins.

In his attempt to express God’s vast love for His people, the psalmist used word pictures. He compared the vastness of God’s love to the distance between the heavens and the earth (v. 11). Then the psalmist talked about His forgiveness in spatial terms. As far as the place where the sun rises is from the place where the sun sets, so the Lord has removed His people’s sins from them (v. 12). The psalmist wanted God’s people to know that His love and forgiveness were infinite and complete.

God freed His people from the power of their transgressions by fully pardoning them.Good news! We don’t have to wait until the New Year to experience Good Riddance Day. Through our faith in Jesus, when we confess and turn from our sins, He bids good riddance to them and casts them into the depths of the sea. 

Today, you and I can make it a Good Riddance Day!

Say ‘It ends with me and that today
‘Pull down your father’s altar.’ Judges 6:25 NLT
When the angel of the Lord called Gideon, he was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress, trying to hide the grain from the Midianites (see v. 11). 

God saw him and declared him a mighty man of valor. That’s interesting, because God was about to use him to destroy the forces of Midian and liberate Israel. But before he could do so, there were a few family dynamics to be dealt with – like the altar his father built to a false god called Baal. It had been in the family for years. 


So God said, ‘Pull down your father’s altar to Baal… Then build an altar to the Lord your God’ (vv. 25-26 NLT). 

Understand this: things like anger, addiction, abuse, and affairs may be part of your family history, but they don’t have to be part of your future. Not only will God heal your heart and hurts, He will use you to heal the hearts and hurts of your children. The generational rubbish can stop here and now. You don’t have to give your kids what your ancestors gave you. Bring it out into the open and lay it before the Lord. Revealing leads to healing. 

Having a mature Christian mentor is something that should be considered, please get one! ‘Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think’ (Romans 12:2 NLT). 

Take note, however that the complete change may not happen overnight. 
Damage done to you in the formative years of your life will take time to heal, and God will work with you day by day until He has made you whole. 
But let the healing begin. Let us rise up in faith, take control of your life, and declare: ‘It ends with me, and it ends here and now.


Thank You, Father, for freedom from sin and curses.

Why can’t we just use today to pray for ourselves, our families, our relations and the Nation.

  1. Stealing, lying and falsehood

Zechariah 5: 1 -4 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me,This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth:for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it;and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts,and it shall enter into the house of the thief,and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name:and it shall remain in the midst of his house,and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

2. Wickedness and idolatry Zechariah 5: 5-11 Wickedness and idolatry removed from the Holy Land to Babylon, there to mingle with their kindred elements.


3. The Character of Those Who May Dwell with the Lord
Psalm 15 NKJV
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.He who does these things shall never be moved.

1 thoughts on “Good Riddance Day! Giving Ourselves A Fresh Start

  • Ukachuwu Blessing Chetachuwu

    Yes, I need to make everyday of my life my riddance day. Build a constant relationship with my father. Be at check at all times.

    Reply

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