“You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy – their immorality and lust, their feasting, and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.” (1 Peter 4:3 NLT)
As children of God, we’ve all left our past. Whether our past has left us may be another matter. Too many who seek the pathway of the Savior want to keep one foot on the path to salvation and one foot on the path to their past. They long for heaven, but they also miss their past sins. Where do you find yourself today? You must decide or live in misery.
Another issue with our past that can trouble us is if we’ve been a “good” person and believe we can stay the same, just let Jesus ride along with us. But where’s the “transformation” in that? It’s as if we believe: “Lord, I’ve got this Christianity business, I just need your stamp of approval. Just let me know that I’m doing okay and I’ll keep on keeping on!” But that’s not how the Lord works.
Paul speaks to this in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 when he writes: “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Jesus is never an add-on to our old life. We’re the caterpillar that becomes the beautiful butterfly. There’s no going back into the cocoon!
Toby McKeehan was on to something when he wrote: “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence.” My sense is there are things in our past that we all miss, but I’m also confident what the Lord gives us in our new life so overshadows what life was like without Him, there’s really nothing to go back to. There are friendships I’d like to rekindle to see if I could help my lost friends see the light of Christ, but I don’t want to go back to life without Jesus.
We can learn things about ourselves when we look back, sometimes very painful, hard things that inspire and enable us to see how far we’ve come and help us gain strength and courage to keep moving forward even when it’s hard. We can also see mistakes we made in relationships that were crucial in changing the trajectory of our life, things we wished we could “take back” or “do over,” but life doesn’t work that way.
What is it in your life you wished you could change? Please don’t live there. By the grace and mercy of God realize you’re forgiven, take His hand and move forward. There’s a scene in my life I’ve relived hundreds of times, maybe more, but it never changes. No matter how many times I watch my tortuous failure, it never changes. And while Satan laughs and chides, Jesus extends His holy hand and invites me to walk from that failure into the hope He’s given me in Him.
We all have regrets, some, obviously more serious and life-altering than others, but the beauty of life in Christ is that He takes all of that into account when He gives us our new life. He channels all that negative energy we’ve burned in feeling sorry for ourselves and living in regret and enables us by His grace to forge a new path into a bright, God-focused life that honors and exalts Jesus.
A life led by His Spirit, motivated by His Spirit, filled and empowered by His Spirit. Yes, of course, we use our past mistakes, failures and sins as points of reference, but we don’t live there anymore. We’ve moved on by God’s grace and we’ve found new points of reference – victories the Lord has given us that encourage and empower us to see with Him all things are possible, even a brand-new life.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 