When you say this, it must be with all of the force and conviction you can muster. It might sound childish but it’s about as accurate a response as I can think of. Now the timing of using this phrase is very important.

The ideal time for saying “Jump in the lake!” is when your less-than-stellar past is being used as a reason to invalidate your God-inspired present. There are few things that can be more deflating to your dreams, goals and plans than to have your past used against you as means of attack.

The ironic thing about someone using your past against you is the fact that everyone has a past. Everyone has made mistakes. Everyone has made humongous blunders and tragic decisions. This is one area of life that all humanity has in common. There is no exception.

Sometimes your past is whispered about as a reason for others to doubt your sincerity. Many times your past will be recounted to others with amazing new details that defy logic, timelines, places and events. Whether accurate or embellished it is all under the umbrella of an attempt to invalidate your progress in life.

Sadly, we too are many times our own worst enemy by how we deal with our past. Too many times we tie self-made ropes of doubt, regret and pain about ourselves because of our past. We relive over and over again the painful scenes of our worst moments. We translate these painful, embarrassing and life altering events into a reason why we are not suitable to do great things for God and humanity.

Our dreams of ministry have become held hostage by our own nightmares of our past. Our confidence in a brighter tomorrow has become overshadowed by the darkness of yesterday. And we just don’t know what to do to move forward.

Times like these are the times you have free license to say “Jump in the lake!”

The prophet Micah gives us the assurance that if God (who we all must answer to) can let go of our past, we can and must also.

“Where is the god who can compare with you—

   wiping the slate clean of guilt,

Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,

   to the past sins of your purged and precious people?

You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,

   for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.

And compassion is on its way to us.

   You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.

You’ll sink our sins

   to the bottom of the ocean.”  Micah 7:18, 19 The Message Bible

So when your past is brought to you for a reason to discourage you or turn you around, send it back to the depths of the ocean where it belongs.  You have free license to say “Jump in the lake!”