DON’T LET YOUR PAST ROB YOU

[Grace777x70]

DON’T LET YOUR PAST ROB YOU!

Philippians 3:13–14

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Are you living a life of regrets thinking, “If only…”? “If only I had that college education…If only I had married the right girl…If only I had taken up the other job…If only I had not made that stupid mistake…”

Is your past robbing you of the joy of today? Then forget your past!
You might say, “But Pastor, you do not know what I have done in the past!”

Consider Paul. If the devil had anything to bring against Paul, it would be reminders of how he had persecuted the early church and caused the deaths of many, including Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

Paul had done horrendous things that were hard for him to forget. But he had such a revelation of God’s awesome forgiveness that he could say, “forgetting those things which are behind…I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.

Beloved, God has forgiven you of all your sins. He has completely forgiven you and declared, “Your sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)

Like Paul, you can forget your past, the wrongs you have done and the hurts you have caused others or been through yourself. God can take the tears of yesterday and transform them into the miracles of tomorrow.

He can restore to you in all abundance what you have lost. He can cause all things, even the painful events of your past, to work together for your good. (Romans 8:28)

God’s Word says, “The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8) His glory will cover your past. Wherever you go, His glory covers your past. It is no longer the same past that you know of because His glory has descended on it.

Your past is past. It has been wiped out. It is gone! So don’t let your past rob you of today’s joy any longer!

Grace Inspirations Joseph Prince Ministries

The purpose of the OP is to encourage people to look to the truth of Christ in their lives now and NOT to dwell on the things of the past. That's NOT who you really are - you are in Christ. He will change our lives as we walk in Him.

 

[azlightsout]

Sometimes u have to cut people out of your life cause all they will do is 'Remind' u off your past .

 

[ladylynn]

This message is so needed and God knew we would need it as Christians. I absolutely love what the writer says here about His glory descending on it. Wow that is so true. What He touches gets changed into something new.

God’s Word says, “The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8) His glory will cover your past. Wherever you go, His glory covers your past. It is no longer the same past that you know of because His glory has descended on it.


When He says He makes all things new, He meant all things. Even we don't understand the magnitude of those words in the Bible until we get further revelation as we move forward in our walk and understanding of His love for us.

Jesus is always offering us such great and amazing hope in every situation. Even someone in prison who is paying for a crime can be lifted up and out of their past and brought up to be who God has re created them to be IN Christ.

 

[eph610]

This is perfectly demonstrated in Matt 16.13-20

Jesus asks his disciples who men say he is.
Jesus then ask them who they think he is
Simon Bar-jonah says Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.
Jesus then tells Simon-Barjonah you are now Peter
Jesus tells Peter what his divine destiny or purpose is.

In John 21, Jesus has to remind Peter 3x Who God said he was and what he would do.
In Acts 2 Peter preaches the greatest message ever preached.
In Acts 3 Peter radically heals the lame man and the Gate beautiful, and fulfills Jesus words to him.

Matt 16.13-20 shows us the 3 greatest revelations a son or daughter of God is given by the Holy Ghost.

Divine Divinity- We learn who Jesus is to us
Divine Identity-YOU ARE WHO GOD SAYS YOU ARE! or identity in Christ
Divine Destiny- What you are going to do in the kingdom

Sadly most of the body is at 1 and very few go onto 2 an almost nobody makes it to 3. This is not a son or daughters fault, it is because of the vast amount of false teaching and how the church is organized...

 

[Joidevivre]

There is a blessing of "forgetting the pain" of your past. And so I have experienced this. However, the past in my life plays an important part of reaching women who have had or are there at the present time. In my teachings/speakings, I use it to shine a light on how God can change a person (literally, me), put a new heart in them and even use the past in bringing in the wisdom of today.

I love the posting. But - forget? No, it is too useful to reach out to others and it always brings me to my knees on how God can lift a person out of deep waters.

Without remembering that past, I would not know these things about God. He delivers, He restores, He makes all things new, He forgives completely and most of all the experience of being shepherded back into the fold when lost.

But NO, the past no longer robs me of the joys today.

 

[lastofall]

"No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better." (Luke 5:39)

 

[Grace777x70]

There is a blessing of "forgetting the pain" of your past. And so I have experienced this. However, the past in my life plays an important part of reaching women who have had or are there at the present time. In my teachings/speakings, I use it to shine a light on how God can change a person (literally, me), put a new heart in them and even use the past in bringing in the wisdom of today.

I love the posting. But - forget? No, it is too useful to reach out to others and it always brings me to my knees on how God can lift a person out of deep waters.

Without remembering that past, I would not know these things about God. He delivers, He restores, He makes all things new, He forgives completely and most of all the experience of being shepherded back into the fold when lost.

But NO, the past no longer robs me of the joys today.

Amen...I agree. God can use anything in the past to reveal His love and grace to us and to help others with there they are at now in their own lives. The OP's main focus was to not let it rob us of the realities we have in Christ now and as you said " but NO, the past no longer robs me of the joys today".

 

[Yet]

Excellent message. Tough one to pull off but for the Grace of God.

 

[pottersclay]

To tell you the truth I have a lot of regrets I battle from time to time, it hurts quite a bit . I realize I have no chance for a do over but I can caution others not to do what I have done. I find comfort knowing the Lord knows of these things and doesn't hold them to my charge. But it does create a field day for Satan. The hurt imo never goes away you just get used to it I guess. A very nice post here Bruce and it helps me to become more transparent. I'm no super Christian by any means but the Lord has taught me to be humble in these times, to pray and listen first, speaking last but above all else to pray.

 

[ladylynn]

Excellent message. Tough one to pull off but for the Grace of God.

Exactly. One of the reasons most believers do not "pull it off" is we are not hearing about grace and teaching about grace in Christ AFTER salvation. Oh... we receive it in order to be saved!! yes!! of course!!! We all say Eph.2:8-9 we all know it by heart for salvation. But we don't take it for the daily gift that it is for our Christian life and walk.

We have been TAUGHT WRONGFULLY that; Jesus already gave it to us for salvation., now we need to work work work and do SOMETHING FOR PETE'S SAKE!! When we fail, that's on us. That weakness and problem is your "fault" "fault" "fault"

In our human reasoning we are ALWAYS looking to find fault somewhere. Blame and fault must be placed before us because we don't shrug off our responsibilities or our faults on others or God.

And sooooo satan uses this IDIOCY OF HUMAN REASONING that reasons out in our brains that we must pay when Jesus already paid., and this reasoning defeats us every time. This reasoning knows nothing of the supernatural grace of God IN Christ. It will never allow you to take freely the grace offered.

God has given us a way out of our guilt and shame. But most of us don't know about this gift of no condemnation. God knows we are but dust and that in order for us to be transformed it is by the renewing of our minds. He worked it out that we are in transformation "mode" We are being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

This is a process. But we don't allow ourselves this very gift of grace that will win for us every time. We have been taught by religion that we have to "man up" We don't take it because we don't "feel" we deserve it. It is not about deserving it. It's about RECEIVING it every day as the beautiful gift it is by faith.
We would actually be honoring Jesus by accepting this grace daily because it would show we understand in ourselves we are weak but in Him we are strong.

We have the gift of grace but we don't know about or what it's for. Therefore we don't walk in it there fore we are weak and sickly.

 

[ladylynn]

Exactly. One of the reasons most believers do not "pull it off" is we are not hearing about grace and teaching about grace in Christ AFTER salvation. Oh... we receive it in order to be saved!! yes!! of course!!! We all say Eph.2:8-9 we all know it by heart for salvation. But we don't take it for the daily gift that it is for our Christian life and walk.

We have been TAUGHT WRONGFULLY that; Jesus already gave it to us for salvation., now we need to work work work and do SOMETHING FOR PETE'S SAKE!! When we fail, that's on us. That weakness and problem is your "fault" "fault" "fault"

In our human reasoning we are ALWAYS looking to find fault somewhere. Blame and fault must be placed before us because we don't shrug off our responsibilities or our faults on others or God.

And sooooo satan uses this IDIOCY OF HUMAN REASONING that reasons out in our brains that we must pay when Jesus already paid., and this reasoning defeats us every time. This reasoning knows nothing of the supernatural grace of God IN Christ. It will never allow you to take freely the grace offered.

God has given us a way out of our guilt and shame. But most of us don't know about this gift of no condemnation. God knows we are but dust and that in order for us to be transformed it is by the renewing of our minds. He worked it out that we are in transformation "mode" We are being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

This is a process. But we don't allow ourselves this very gift of grace that will win for us every time. We have been taught by religion that we have to "man up" We don't take it because we don't "feel" we deserve it. It is not about deserving it. It's about RECEIVING it every day as the beautiful gift it is by faith.
We would actually be honoring Jesus by accepting this grace daily because it would show we understand in ourselves we are weak but in Him we are strong.

We have the gift of grace but we don't know about or what it's for. Therefore we don't walk in it there fore we are weak and sickly.

AND..... While I'm on a roll., There are believers who will FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT the very idea of using the grace of God IN Christ. They don't understand they are cutting themselves and others off at the knees when they refuse to accept the grace of God IN Christ for theirs and their brothers and sisters in Christ for the battle that is before us.

They say "MAN UP" . But we don't MAN UP if we want to win the battle!!! Manning up will defeat you!!! Instead believe in Christ Jesus and DO NOT MAN UP. Put Jesus there. I'd say "Jesus Up" but that sounds weird. Whatever you do., DO NOT MAN UP!!! Get rid of that whole man up mentality.

 

[Grace777x70]

Amen ladylynn!

When we "sit down" in resting in what Christ has done of us - then He "stands up" inside of us in the new man in Christ to manifest Himself in and through us.