Our Past is not an Excuse for a Bad Future

As I was watching a couple children playing, the older of the two became upset about something the younger did. She was crying and screaming at him and it quickly got my attention. When I inquired as to what was going on, her little brother had done something she didn’t like. In my adult opinion, I thought it was no big deal, and certainly not anything that she hadn’t done to him at one time or another. As I spoke to her, trying to calm her down, she said, “you don’t understand, I had a hard time when I was younger.” I said, “What?” She repeated the statement. “We’ve all had hard times in our lives, but that doesn’t give us the right to throw a fit.” She found that statement a little hard to believe so I told her about some of the things I experienced as a child. She calmed down. The conversation with her stayed with

me. The question kept coming to my mind, “How often do we use something in our past as an excuse for something going on in our lives now?”

For people “of the world” (as Christians, while we are IN the world, we are not OF the world) I’m not sure how they deal with their pasts, but as born-again children of God, we can hold to the promise as the song we sang for years says:

I'm a new creation --- I'm a brand new man

Old things are passed away --- I am born again

More than a conqueror --- That's who I am

I'm a new creation --- I'm a brand new man

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2

Corinthians 5:17 KJV

And another personal favorite promise to me: Philippians 1:6 – Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

(KJV)

God has done the work, Jesus paid the price, but it’s up to us to receive it and walk with it. As the old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. It’s all been done

for us. It is up to us to believe it, receive it and walk in it. As we are walking it through, we are then able to reach out to others who may be having the same struggles.

Bottom line is this, those bad things in our past are gone. The blackboard is washed clean, we have a new, clean slate, a book full of blank pages, ready to be filled with new experiences. BELIEVE, RECEIVE, WALK IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

P.S.: Our bad experiences in our past are also no excuse for being ministers of reconciliation in this world.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18

Once we are set free and received a divine healing, God can and will use our experiences to reach out to others who are going down the same road. We can and will be a hand extended out to those feeling lost and alone. We will be a vessel of honor, a worthy vessel.

Sandy Peffer