Getting Passed the Past

Our story can dictate our decisions and our life. We can hold onto our story so much that it causes present pain. Where does your past take you? Does it cause regret, fear, or heartbreak? Does your past produce negative emotions? If your answer is yes, then you may be cleaving to the past. It’s good when we’re able to look back on the past and see where it’s brought us. This helps us to see life from a positive perspective. Our past is a testimony for others and can bring someone closer to Christ. Our past story can change a heart. However, the issues arise when:

• we use our past to justify the present.

• we use our past to evoke an emotional response from others and to seek attention and affirmation from others.

• we live in the past, remembering the “good ole days”.

• we allow the guilt, pain, and heartbreak that led us to make unhealthy and unwise choices that eventually haunt us.

Though some stories are devastating and painful we don’t have to continue to live in them, and they don’t have to dictate who we are in the present. Philippians 3:13-14 We can have a story without being the story. You are not your story. Your story is only a fraction of who you are. It doesn’t determine who you are.

How can you take your past and use it for God’s purpose?

1. Allow Christ to recreate you. 2 Corinthians 5:17

2. Stop believing the lie that you are your past. Isaiah 43:18-19

3. Believe who God says you are. Galatians 5:1

The Take-Away

1. Jesus has a plan bigger than your past. 1 John 1:9

2. Jesus is the ultimate designer. He can take your past and turn it around for your good. Romans 8:28

3. Jesus wants you to give Him your past. Romans 12:1-2

Check Your Motives

1. Why am I hanging on to my story?

2. Is hanging onto my story bringing me closer to Jesus?

3. Can I allow Christ to heal my mind and create a new story?

Until next time...