Living in the "Now" with Jesus Christ.

SO often we get told not to live in the past but to live for the future, or sometimes you get told to live in the "NOW" moment.
Well, I believe that we should live in the "NOW" moment.
Why?

Living in the NOW moment allows you to change the way you tackle a present situation. Because you are currently in the situation (whatever it is), you can now decide what angle to handle the situation.
Do you handle it with a sense of fear? (meaning, do you retaliate at something or someone based on what they have said or done to you in the past?)
Do you handle it with a sense of love? (meaning, no matter what has happened in the past, you ignore it and extend a loving hand/attitude/way to another person or situation.)

By changing the way you live now based on the past, this tends to be based on a sense of fear. Fear about what has happened and fear about what is going to happen in the future. This will also mean, then, that your future has already been decided by your basing it on the past. You expect the future to be worse based on the past, you expect the future to be difficult because you don't have any hope in the current situation because you base everything you do and say with that bad sense of fear.
You have to change that!  How?

Well, two things.

• First, forget the past. Whatever has happened is gone, you cannot change it. It is over. Yes it may have been hurtful, difficult, people may have said bad things to you and this happens to everyone, but why live your whole life with this in mind. You will just never get out of the fear circle and you will always be in retaliation mode, waiting for someone to say something bad/hurtful/ugly to you so you can have a quick comeback to make yourself feel stronger or more worthy. Isn't this ridiculous?  We all base our current lives on past events because we feel that we are handling them correctly, but just take a moment and go back to a confrontation you have had with someone before.
• Involve the Holy Spirit. Its pointless involving the Holy Spirit in the past. That's gone. but you can ask the Holy Spirit to come into the present situation to guide, to comfort, to advise. You know the whole statement "WWDJ - What would Jesus do?" Well, you can do that if you forget the past while tackling a present situation and ask for the Spirit to fill you, give you a sense of direction. What will end up happening as that you will find yourself handling the situation alot different, only this time it will be out of love and not fear. The Holy Spirit is don't involved in fear and wants to bring love into your life and He wants you to show love when dealing with other (even though they may have caused hurt in the past)

Don't live your life for the past, but live it in the NOW, where you have control. You can decide how to handle a situation, with the Holy Spirit there.
What will happen, is that you will end up giving out love which will in turn see you having a whole ton of love coming straight back at you.

I write this because it is so true to my life. Dealing with current situations by thinking what happened in the past, what that person said to you 2 weeks ago, what they did to you, how they gossipped about you etc.
This has to be the most difficult thing - Showing love to someone who has caused you hurt before. But this is what the Spirit of God does, He mends relationships using the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.