Joel Osteen - Moving Forward
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Joel Osteen encourages believers to stop living in regrets and focusing on past hurts, disappointments, and failures, emphasizing that holding onto negative baggage poisons the future while letting it go allows God to exchange ashes for beauty and bring new beginnings. Through stories of personal loss, a divorced woman, a grieving widower, Samuel mourning Saul, a friend after divorce, Joel’s father’s passing, and Job rising from ashes, he urges moving forward with faith for God’s greater plans ahead.
Let Go of the Past
I want to talk to you today about moving forward. It is easy to go through life looking in the rearview mirror, focused on what did not work out, on what hurt us, on the mistakes we made: «If only I would have finished college. If only I would have spent more time with my children. If only that company would not have laid me off after twenty years—that is just not right.»
But as long as you are living in regrets, focused on the negative things of the past, it is going to keep you from the bright future God has in store.
You have got to let go of what did not work out, let go of the hurts and pains, let go of your disappointments, your failures.
You cannot do anything about the past, but you can do something about right now.
And whether it happened twenty years ago or twenty minutes ago, let it go and move forward.
If you keep bringing negative baggage from yesterday into today, it will poison your future.
You may have had an unfair past—I am not debating that. What I am saying is you do not have to have an unfair future.
You may have gotten off to a rough start in life, but it is not how you start that matters; it is how you finish.
Do not let what somebody did or did not do for you be an excuse to live sour.
Do not let a bad break, a divorce, a betrayal, a bad childhood cause you to settle where you are.
Move forward and God will pay you back. Move forward and God will vindicate you. Move forward and you will come into a new beginning.
Nothing that has happened to you is a surprise to God.
The loss of that loved one did not catch God off guard. The business that did not make it, the relationship that did not work out did not stop God’s plan for your life.
Now the real question is: are you going to get stuck, fall into self-pity, become bitter, let the past poison your future, or are you going to shake it off and move forward knowing that your best days are still up ahead?
The Windshield and Rearview Mirror
In your automobile there is a big windshield in the front and a very small rearview mirror.
The reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what has happened in your past is not nearly as important as what is in your future.
Where you are going is much more significant than where you have been.
But if you stay focused on the past, you will get stuck where you are.
This is the reason a lot of people do not have joy, no enthusiasm for life. They are dragging around all this negative baggage from the past.
Somebody offended them last week—they have got that stuffed in their resentment bag.
Last month they lost their temper, said some things they should not have—they have got that in their guilt and condemnation bag.
Ten years ago they lost a loved one; they still do not understand it. They have got that hurt and pain in their disappointment bag.
They carry around their bag of regrets—all the things they wished they would have done differently.
They have got their divorce in a specific bag—been mad at their spouse for years.
If they went to take an airline flight, they could not afford it. They have got twenty-seven bags they drag around with them everywhere they go.
Friends, life is too short to live that way.
Learn to travel light.
Every morning when you first get up, forgive the people that did you wrong the day before.
Forgive your spouse for what they said. Forgive your boss for being rude. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you have made.
At the start of the day, let go of the disappointments, the setbacks from yesterday.
Start every morning afresh and anew.
God did not create you to carry around all that baggage—and some of you have been holding on to it for years.
It is not going to change unless you do something about it.
You have got to put your foot down and say, «That is it. I am not living in regrets anymore. I am not focusing on my disappointments. I am not dwelling on who hurt me, on what did not work out. I am letting it go and moving forward with my life.»
Focus on What You Can Change
See, we should focus on what we can change, not what we cannot change.
What is done is done.
If somebody offended you, mistreated you, disappointed you, you cannot undo that.
You can either get bitter, pack it in a bag and let it weigh you down, or you can forgive them and go on.
If you lost your temper yesterday, you can either beat yourself up, carry around the guilt and condemnation, or you can ask for forgiveness, receive God’s mercy, and do better today.
If you did not get that promotion, you can get sour, go around with a chip on your shoulder, or you can shake it off knowing that God has something better in store.
No matter what happens in your life—big or small—if you will learn to let it go and move forward, then your past does not have to poison your future.
Baggage in a New Relationship
I met a lady after the service a few years ago who had been through a divorce. We prayed several times that God would bring somebody new into her life.
One day she met this man—a fine godly man, very successful. She was so happy about it.
But she made the mistake of dragging all of her negative baggage into this new relationship.
She was constantly talking about what she had been through and how she was mistreated.
She had a victim mentality.
The man told me later she was so focused on her past, so caught up in what she had been through, he could not handle it. He moved on.
That is what happens when we hold on to the hurts and pains of the past—it will poison you everywhere you go.
You cannot drag around the baggage from yesterday and expect to have good relationships today.
You have got to let it go.
Quit living life looking in that rearview mirror; start looking out the great big windshield.
You may have had some bad breaks, but that did not stop God’s plan for your life.
He still has something amazing in front of you.
When one door closes, if you will stay in faith, God will always open up another door.
When one dream dies, do not sit around in self-pity talking about what you have lost—dream another dream.
Your life is not over because you lost a loved one, you went through a divorce, you got laid off.
You would not be alive unless God had another victory in front of you.
Now quit mourning over what you have lost. Let go of what did not work out.
Change the Channel
How do you let it go? Quit thinking about it. Quit talking about it. Quit reliving all the negative things that have happened to you.
When those pictures come up on the movie screen of your mind, change the channel.
You have the remote control. You do not have to watch everything that comes up.
If you keep reliving negative memories, thinking about how unfair it was—"How could they do that to me?"—that wound will never heal.
Every time you think about it, you are reopening it.
The mind is very powerful. When you replay negative experiences, you will feel the same emotion as when it first happened.
Before long you will be sad, angry, depressed, bitter.
I know people—when that picture comes up on the movie screen of their mind, the negative memories—instead of quickly changing the channel, they go pull up a chair so to speak, get a bag of popcorn, watch it for the next fifteen minutes.
The scripture says think on things that are pure, things that are wholesome, things that are of a good report.
If you are going to keep moving forward, you have got to be disciplined in your thought life.
The negative memories will try to replay again and again. You have got to guard your mind.
Some of you would go to a new level if you would simply start changing the channel.
Quit replaying the disappointments; quit reliving the bad breaks.
Every time you watch that, you think about it—you are reopening the wound. It is making it more difficult.
Automatic Doors Analogy
I walked into a government building one time; there were two sets of double doors about fifteen feet apart. They were both automatic doors.
When you walked through the first set of doors, you had to let them totally close until the next set of doors would open.
As long as I stayed at that first set, the second set would not open.
It is the same principle in life.
If you are sitting around nursing your wounds, feeling sorry for yourself, you are not going to see anything new.
You have got to let those doors totally close.
Let go of the disappointments; let go of the failures.
You cannot change the past, but you can change the future.
If you will move forward, you will see the new things God wants to do—and this is what the scripture says: God will give you beauty for ashes.
Here is the key: you have to let go of the ashes before you can receive the beauty.
Ashes represent our broken dreams, our failures, our disappointments, our hurts.
We all have our share of ashes.
As long as you are holding on to the ashes—thinking about the disappointment, mad at somebody, bitter at the past—then you will not receive the beauty.
An exchange has to take place.
It is an act of faith to say, «God, I am forgiving this person that hurt me,» or «I lost my biggest client but I am not going to have a chip on my shoulder. My friend betrayed me, but I am going to keep a good attitude.»
That is when God can give you the beauty.
«Well, Joel, they hurt me too badly; I cannot forgive them.» That is a heavy price to pay.
If you will not let go of the old, you cannot receive the new.
«Well, we prayed for our mother and she did not get healed like your mother. We do not understand it.»
I do not claim to understand it all. I am simply asking you to let go of the ashes, let go of the disappointment, let go of the blame.
Take those ashes—your broken dreams, your hurts, your failures, even your questions—put them into God’s hands and say, «God, it was not fair. They hurt me. My dream did not work out, but I refuse to live life looking in the rearview mirror. You promised me beauty for ashes, so right now I am releasing the bitterness. I am forgiving the person that hurt me. I am letting go of the disappointments.»
A Lifetime of Mourning
I know a man that lost his wife over ten years ago. She was killed in an automobile accident.
It is a very tragic situation, and of course there is a normal period for grieving—that is a part of the healing process. That is the way God made us.
But some ten years later this man was still grieving.
He let a season of mourning turn into a lifetime of mourning.
He ended up a very bitter, angry man.
What happened? He is holding on to the ashes.
God wants to give him beauty, but because he will not let go of the old, he cannot receive the new.
The enemy would love for you to spend your whole life sitting in the ashes—bitter over a relationship that did not work out, angry over a job you did not get, feeling sorry for yourself because of a loved one that died.
No, turn loose of those ashes.
If you went through a divorce, let it go—God has somebody better in your future.
If you were not treated right growing up, let it go and God will make it up to you.
If you lost a loved one, they are up in heaven right now celebrating.
You know what they would want me to tell you? Move forward.
Quit mourning over something that is over and done.
Quit mourning over what you cannot change.
If God wanted them to still be here, they would still be here.
If God wanted you to have that position that you did not get, you would have it.
Shake off the self-pity; shake off the disappointment.
The apostle Paul put it this way: «Forgetting what lies behind, I strain toward what lies ahead.»
That word «strain» indicates it is going to take effort.
You go through a bad break, a loss—the easy thing to do is sit around, talk about how bad life is treating you.
But if you are going to keep moving forward, you have got to have a strong will.
You have got to rise up like Paul and say, «That is it. I am not holding on to these ashes. I know what is in my future is greater than what is in my past, so I am pressing forward in life.»
Samuel and Saul
This is what the prophet Samuel had to do.
Samuel had invested a lot of time and energy into his relationship with Saul.
Back when Saul was a young man, Samuel chose him at the Lord’s command to be the next king of Israel.
Samuel took Saul under his wing; he did his best to make sure that Saul would succeed.
But unfortunately Saul would not walk in obedience, and God rejected him as king.
Well, you can imagine how Samuel must have felt.
He had put all this time and effort and energy into Saul, and now it looks like it was all a big waste of time.
I am sure Samuel was heartbroken, sitting around feeling sorry for himself, thinking about what did not work out.
In 1 Samuel 16 God said, «Samuel, how long are you going to mourn over Saul?»
God is asking us the same thing.
How long are you going to mourn over what you have lost?
How long are you going to be discouraged over a relationship that did not work out, over a job you did not get, over somebody that hurt you?
There is a problem with excessive mourning: it stops God from releasing the new things He has for you.
God told Samuel, «Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to the house of Jesse. I have chosen one of his sons to be the next king.»
God was saying, «Samuel, if you will quit mourning and instead get up and start moving forward, I will give you another king.»
Saul was his first choice, but just because Saul would not walk in obedience, God did not say, «I am sorry, Samuel; Saul blew it—that ruins everything.»
No, God always has another plan.
If you will quit dwelling on the disappointment, quit feeling sorry for yourself, and instead do what the scripture says—fill your horn with oil—that simply means put on a new attitude.
Put the smile back on your face; get the spring back in your step. Get your hopes up. Start expecting God’s goodness.
That is when you will see the new things God has in store.
Now Samuel could have said, «God, I cannot do it. I am too heartbroken. They hurt me too bad. I spent too much time with Saul.»
If he would have done that, he would have missed out on choosing David—one of the greatest kings that has ever lived.
Just like with Samuel, what you may think right now is a big disappointment, a big stumbling block—God is going to turn it into a steppingstone to take you into the greatest days of your life.
A Friend’s New Beginning
I have a friend that was married for many, many years.
One day he came home and his wife had left a note on the kitchen table saying that she had fallen in love with somebody else and was moving away.
And of course he was very devastated.
When I saw him, he looked twenty years older than he really was.
He said, «I do not understand it. I love this lady. I will never find another person like her.»
He thought he had seen his best days.
He grieved that loss. He went through a season of mourning, but he did not let it turn into a lifetime of mourning.
It did not happen overnight, but eventually he got his passion back.
He put on a new attitude.
He made the decision he was not going to live life looking in the rearview mirror; he kept moving forward.
About three years later he met this beautiful young lady; they ended up falling in love, getting married.
He told me, «Joel, I have never been this happy in all of my life. I never knew what true love really was.»
This is the way God is.
If you will let go of the ashes, not get bitter, God will do something greater than you have ever imagined.
Joel’s Father’s Passing
When my father was alive, I used to tell Victoria, «I wonder what is going to happen to me and what is going to happen around here when my father goes to be with the Lord.»
My father and I—we had traveled the world together for seventeen years.
I worked with him day in and day out here at the ministry.
He would come over to our house many nights; we would have dinner, go watch the Astros play baseball.
Much of my world was built around my father.
In the back of my mind I thought when my dad dies, it will never be as good as it is right now.
When my dad went to be with the Lord in 1999—he suddenly had a heart attack—I mourned the loss of my father, but I did not get bitter, did not have a chip on my shoulder.
I did not feel cheated.
I knew the number of my father’s days God had fulfilled.
I knew it was a part of God’s plan.
And I say this very respectfully because I still love and miss my father, but what I thought would be my darkest hour turned out to be my brightest hour.
I thought I would never be as happy and fulfilled as when my dad was here.
But like with Samuel, God had another plan.
God had something better for the new season of my life.
When you go through a loss, a disappointment, it is easy to think it will never be like it used to be.
If you will stay in faith and keep moving forward, you are right—it will not be what it used to be. It will be better than it used to be.
That is the way our God is. That is beauty for ashes.
Now my question: are you still mourning over something that you should be over?
If you will fill your horn with oil, put on the new attitude, start moving forward, you will see the better things that God has in store.
Sowing Loss as a Seed
In life we all have to deal with some kind of loss: loss of a loved one, loss of a job, loss of a dream, loss of a relationship.
And it is tempting to feel like something was taken away from us, something was stolen.
You can have one of two attitudes.
You can say, «God, I do not understand it. How could You let that happen to me?» You can get angry, bitter, pass blame.
But a much better approach is to take that loss and sow it as a seed.
Say, «God, I do not know why this was taken away, but I am not going to let anyone steal from me. I am sowing this as a seed, trusting You to bring me a harvest.»
In other words, you did not get a promotion that you deserved—do not get bitter.
Have the attitude, «Nobody stole this promotion from me. God, I am sowing it as a seed believing that You will bring me an even better position.»
A relationship did not work out: «God, I am not going to live my life sour thinking that I have wasted months or even years of my life. I am sowing this as a seed knowing that You will bring the right person into my life.»
See, you cannot have a victim mentality: «Oh man, I have been robbed. My loved one was taken away.»
No, turn it around; give it to God. Sow it as a seed, and you will be amazed at what kind of harvest God will bring you.
The Mountain Climber
I saw a story on the news several years ago about this young mountain climber.
He was in a remote section of Utah hiking through the canyon all alone when suddenly this eight-hundred-pound boulder shifted and his right arm became stuck.
For five days he tried everything he could to free himself—had a small pocketknife.
Hour after hour he chipped away at that boulder to no avail.
When that did not work, he tried to use some of his climbing equipment to somehow shift the rock.
On the third day he ran out of food and water.
By this time his arm was no longer alive. He had no feeling in it; had no blood going to it for days. It was cold, hard, stiff.
It looked like he was going to die with it.
It did not seem like there was any way out.
But on the fifth day he made a decision to do the unthinkable.
He knew he had to cut off his arm if he was going to be able to live.
He put a tourniquet on up here.
Somehow, someway he amputated his own arm.
He then walked for two miles; somebody ran into him. Miraculously his life was saved.
And in a sense we all come to places like this in life where something is over and done.
There is nothing more we can do about it.
We may not understand it. It may not have been fair, but none of that changes the fact that it is no longer alive.
We could either hold on to it and let it drag us down and defeat us with it, or like this young man—as difficult as it may be—we can choose to break free, move forward so we can experience a new beginning.
If something is dead in your life, do not die with it.
If something is over and done, do not hold on to it; let it go.
Say, «God, they hurt me. It was not right, but I am not going to dwell on it. I am not going to relive that memory. I am going to cut it off and move forward.»
Sometimes you have to take bold measures to keep making progress.
If a dream died, do not die with it.
Cut off the broken dream, cut off the relationship that did not work out, cut off the self-pity, the unforgiveness, the negative attitude.
Where you are unwilling to walk away is where you are going to become stuck.
Job Rising from Ashes
In the scripture Job went through a nine-month period where everything that could go wrong did.
He lost his health, his business, his family.
At one point it says he sat down among the ashes.
He was so overwhelmed, so distraught he thought, «This is it; I will never be happy again.»
When you go through a loss, a disappointment, there is nothing the enemy would love to see you do any more than to sit down among the ashes—get bitter, hold on to something that is dead, lose your enthusiasm for life.
That is what Job did for a period of time—he sat down.
But here is the whole catch: Job did not stay down.
He got his fire back, got his passion back; he rose up out of those ashes.
He said, «This may be difficult, but I know my Redeemer lives. I know my God is still on the throne. I know I would not be alive unless there was something greater in my future.»
The scripture says Job came out with twice what he had before.
And some of you today—life has not turned out the way you have hoped, gone through some unfair situations—now like Job you are sitting in the ashes, holding on to something that did not work out, bitter, discouraged.
God is saying, «If you will let go of the ashes, if you will put on a new attitude, I will do for you what I did for Job. I will not only bring you out, but I will bring you out with twice what you had before.»
Isaiah said, «Because you got a double dose of trouble, your inheritance in the land will be double and your joy will go on forever.»
Friends, your future starts today.
Do not you dare go through life looking in that rearview mirror.
Look out the great big windshield in front of you.
Your life is filled with possibility; there are incredible opportunities in front of you.
You may have had some bad breaks, but always remember God has promised beauty for those ashes.
Now do your part: let go of the ashes; quit reliving negative memories.
Do not let a season of mourning turn into a lifetime of mourning.
Be bold to cut off whatever did not work out.
Whether it was thirty minutes ago or thirty years ago, let it go and move forward.
If you will do this, you will feel a heaviness lift off of you.
And I believe and declare the rest of your life will be the best of your life.
God will take what is meant for harm and use it to your advantage.
You will overcome every obstacle, defeat every enemy, and become everything God has created you to be.
In Jesus' name.