“Wallowing in shame, remorse, self-hatred, and guilt over real or imagined failings in our past lives betrays a distrust in the love of God. It shows that we have not accepted the acceptance of Jesus Christ and thus have rejected the total sufficiency of his redeeming work. Preoccupation with our past sins, present weaknesses, and character defects gets our emotions churning in self-destructive ways, closes us within the mighty citadel of self, and preempts the presence of a compassionate God.” Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust.’
Every human being ever born of man and even the first two who were created failed. That is a long line of failures in our DNA. We are each born with this messed up past because we all have descended from Adam and Eve. This does not define who we are though, what defines who we are is how and who we choose to believe. It is true we are born the same way, and we all have everything in common, we are all born into depravity away from God, we all share the same air we breathe, we all share the same water we drink, we all share the same earth we live on, the same sun shines on each of us, and Christ came to save us all. But not all will respond to Christ the same way, they will let the past control their today and tomorrow, (here is the truth no matter what you do or say the past is over it will not change), but we can change ,when we take our hearts and minds off the failures of our past and let God work through them to change our lives and the lives of those around us. Failed business adventures, relationships, financial decisions, family’s, and other things are only temporary setbacks, they are building blocks of life in a fallen world. It doesn’t matter where you’re born in poverty or wealth, in America or the Congo we all share in these character traits and commonalities. We need to get over ourselves,get up and press on, take what God has done and is doing and live in His presence, His promises, His power. Scripture gives us example after example of failed people who learned too forget the past and live by faith in God, surrendering all things to Him no matter their own character flaws. God's word says this; “Now without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.....By faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful....But they now desire a better place — a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:6-9, 11, 16 CSB Noah liked to drink, Abraham came from a family who drank, worshipped false gods, he was also a liar and struggled in his faith until he surrendered to God, Sarah laughed and doubted God’s promise when she was told she would be a mother, Jacob was a liar and thief, a swindler of swindlers, but each of them learned to turn over their past, surrender their lives to God, their past, their failures did not define who they were, God did and called them His sons and daughters, just as He does us God’s word says; “Jesus responded, It is time we learned to let go of what we cannot change and change who we trust in, if we have been accepted by Christ then we need too live like it, we are temporary residents on our way home don’t let the chains of the past slow you down or stop you for if Christ has set you free, you’re free.
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May 2020
Band Of Brothers
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