Thursday, January 17, 2008

Overcoming the Past to Overwhelm your Future

Isn’t funny that when you finally get closer to God that your past seems to walk into the proverbial room and slap you in the face? It is almost always the thing that people talk to me about, “How do I get rid of my past?” And I had absolutely no idea what to say to these people. I didn’t know because I hadn’t reached that point in my life yet. Now here in last couple months I have realized what there were talking about. It seems as though the demons from my past has come back and began to haunt me. And I began to ask “How do I get rid of the things in my past?” I would go to my room and just cry and pray “God! Why are the things that I have conquered coming back to mess with me?” I don’t really remember when I read it, I just happen to open my bible, and there was the answer. Ironically enough, the answer to my question was in the book of Luke.

Luke 9:57-62

57And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

58And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

59And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

60Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

61And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

62And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

It was that last verse that jumped out at me. I sat back and thought on what I had just read. I had realized that this man and I had a lot in common. We wanted to follow God, but the things that we had left behind were hindering us. It is then that we need to realize the dead will bury the dead, and if we ever want to do things for our God, we need to set our hand on the plow and forget the things that our behind us! We need to keep our eyes on the mark! Just like Jacob had wrestled with God the whole night, we must not give up until we are blessed. People want to know how to get rid of there past, when the thing we need to do is grab it and let it become a testimony, quit running from it, and use it to make yourself something better. Jacob had cheated his brother out of a blessing, he had something that he was running from. But God came down and touched him, and changed his life and his name. Before God can ever use you, before he can ever give you the blessing of your future, you have to face the failures of your past, even though they may hurt and isolate you. You will have to come face to face with God. When Jacob walked away after wrestling with God, he named the place Peniel, which means “I have come face to face with God.” We have to reach Peniel before we can ever become what God wants us to be. Now here is the problem, I haven’t exactly answered the question... How do you overcome your past. You have to let go of everything that has happened in your past, including the good things, cause God has something greater that he wants to give you! Jacob was well blessed, he had Oxen and cattle that he had inherited. But God didn’t want Jacob, he wanted Israel! One of the main problems that we have, is we try to go to the next level, without completely becoming what we need to be, there are things that we still try to hold on to. But if you want to become Israel, you have to leave everything behind! My problems was something so small, that I overlooked it. I was still watching movies, tv, and video games. But if I ever hope to become something great I need to get up and turn that junk off. Most people don’t realize that there is not a single positive influence that can come from those things “………Oh but Luke, we only watch the news, and the only movie we own is the Passion of Christ!” When was the last time you have heard something positive on the news? And you think just because the Passion is a movie about Christ’s crucifixion it makes it okay to watch? Its not about the content! Its about you should be experiencing the crucifixion, not watching it on the T.V.!

The next time you need something to boost your faith go read about Peter. If there was someone that should have been kicked out the discipleship of Jesus, it seems that it should have been Peter. But yet, he was the one that stood up on the day of Pentecost preaching one f the most important messages in the Bible, only because he was able to overcome the things he had done, and he stepped out and shook his present. I don’t know if I have been making since, but all I am trying to say is that in order to overcome the past, we need to overwhelm the present!

posted by Shadrach Stand @ 11:09 AM 1 Comments