When it appears that your dream will never come to pass, remember your previous victories that God brought to pass in your life. I heard another preacher say one time, “Your life moves in the direction of your most dominant thoughts.” If you think negative thoughts all the time such as, “I can’t. It’s impossible. It will never come to pass,” then that’s the way your life will move. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).
When you think positive, and when you remember that God’s done it before and He can do it again—and that God’s bigger than this adversity, then your life is going to move in that direction.
I heard this same preacher say, “Your memory has two files of your past: File Number One: Failures. File Number Two: Successes.” File One contains your painful experiences. File Two contains your pleasurable experiences. Your memory will give you whichever one you seem to lean to the most.
Have you ever seen a file cabinet that is so worn out and beat up and the handle is about to fall off because it is used more than the others? The reason some people keep having so many negative thoughts about unpleasant experiences is because they go to that file more than they go to their victory file.
It doesn’t matter how badly your life has been, you’ve had some good times somewhere in the midst of all that hurt and pain. You might say, “You don’t know my life. There’s never been anything good.” Well, I can think of one thing: you’re still breathing. The Bible says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” So start praising God for the breath that you have. When the painful memories come up, cast them down. When those memories of failure come up, cast them down.
Think about the times that God came through. Think about the times the blessings came. Think about “the lion and the bear” that God delivered you from, and then old Goliath won’t look so big. Replaying past triumphs and victories is a powerful way to keep your attention focused on your dream. If you keep replaying them, then the dream you’re presently waiting for won’t look so impossible. “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Phil. 3:13).
Don’t give another thought to bad experiences of the past. Don’t even bring them up. Forget them and rejoice in what God is doing right now and what He will do in the future. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not fasten its grip on me” (Ps. 101:3 NAS).
There’s nothing you can do to change the past, so don’t bring it up. It’s worthless and it is designed to fasten a grip on you, to seize you, to capture you and cause you to let go of your dream. Let go of the past and focus on your glorious future.
Excerpt permission granted by Jerry Savelle Ministries
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
Since 1969, Dr. Savelle traveled the world teaching people how to win in life. Dr. Savelle ministered in more than three thousand churches and in twenty-six nations, and has overseas offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
God used Dr. Savelle to impact people who are burned out on religion and who have backslidden in their walk with God, as well as Christians who have a need to hear the Word of God presented in terms applicable to their lives, dreams, and destinies. He hosted the Jerry Savelle Ministries television broadcast which airs in two hundred countries worldwide.
Dr. Savelle authored more than forty books, including his bestsellers, If Satan Can't Steal Your Joy, He Can't Keep Your Goods and You're Somebody Special to God. He served as one of the founding Pastors of Heritage of Faith Christian Center in Crowley, Texas.
Jerry J. Savelle, 77, went home to be with the Lord on April 15, 2024. He spent his last day on earth fulfilling his purpose teaching people the Word of God