Apologetics
HOW LONG WILL OTHERS CONTINUE TO KEEP YOUR PAST IN YOUR PRESENT AND IN YOUR FUTURE
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I have to ask that question because it something that people face everyday. People make mistakes in their lives, they sin, they seek God for forgiveness, and according to the scriptures, in Jeremiah 31:34, the latter part of the verse reads, “ …….declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more.” God does not continue to through our past in our faces, God forgives the past and desires for us to move forward to the future. When there is a constant reminder of what you have done in your past, it opens the door for guilt once again to set in, for shame to set in, for the unworthiness to set in. It is also a sign of unforgiveness on the part of the person who continues to remind you of who they think you are because of a mistake you made in the past. As long as there is a reminder of who you use to be, you will never be completely free from the bondage that has been plaguing you. Many Christians growth is stunted because we look at who they use to be instead of who they are today.
God has compassion on us, but what about man? What if others would continue to bring up your past and hold it against you? The word tells us in Micah 7:19, “He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” If we are going to kick people while they are down, remind them of their past, they will never be free to live according to the way God desires them to live, because they will continue to be in bondage, because of man. God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us, Jesus loved us so much that He did not come off the cross, but He stayed there, suffered, bled and died, just so our sins would be covered under the blood. Jesus never intended for us to remain in bondage by man, but to be free in Him. Jesus never wanted us to be beat up because of our past, but to learn and grow in Him.
Instead of drawing people closer to God, we are driving a wedge. Pretty soon, your witnessing and your testimony will have no validity, because you have turned someone away instead of drawing them closer. God forgives and forgets, why not man? God wants us to press toward the mark of a higher call instead of reliving the past over and over again, because someone wants to keep reminding you. II Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away, behold all things become new.” Philippians 3:13, 14 reads, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” We need to take on the characteristics of Christ; we need to stop holding things against people and reach out lovingly to encourage them to continue to grow. We need to release people from the bondage that we have put them in, desiring that be awarded the opportunity to grow in the grace of God as we have. We need to stop kicking people while they are down, but give them an encouraging word to lift them up. Stop looking at who they use to be and start looking at who they are now in Christ, remember, you use to be something else also, and where would you be now, if people held your past against you?
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We should also stand firm and be focused on moving ahead even if we are told right in the face that we had a past that was questionable.
So many of us have been haunted by the past, sometimes to the point of allowing it to interfere with our spiritual fulfillment in the present. I am not trying to promote my work here, far from it! but I hope you will take time to read an article I just reposted on things of the past.
God alone, has control of our past, our present and our future.
We must not allow anyone, ourselves included to let the past rule our today.
Bessie
Good job and thank you.