Dealing With Your Past

Do you sometimes feel that no matter what you do you cannot live down your past? Do you keep looking back at where you came from and think you will never get to where you want to be. That may very well happen. Someone said, the reason the rear view mirror is so small and the windscreen so big is because what happened in your past is not nearly as important as what's in your future.

God puts it this way:  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29: 11). 

When we are in Christ, we can look with confidence to the future because He holds our future. In the Bible, there is a woman named Mary Magdalene, who seemed shackled to her past. Whenever people spoke of her, they would refer to her as the woman out of whom went seven devils even though she'd been healed and was now a follower of Jesus Christ. He saw her as a new creature, clothed in His righteousness, and so when He rose from the dead, He chose her to be the one to go and spread the good news.

Are you like Mary Magdalene today? See yourself as God sees you, a new creature. The past is over. 2017 is behind you. Learn from its lessons, but don't keep looking into that rear view mirror, or you may end up where you don't want to be. 

"Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43: 19).

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Christmas: A Time For Reconcilation

 May I tell you a story?

Long, long ago, God decided to make man in His own image and likeness. Then He brought a woman to the man and told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. The man and woman were very happy, living in the garden that God had prepared for them and playing with the animals.

Then one day, Satan entered the garden in the form of a serpent and tempted the woman to eat of the fruit that God had commanded them not to eat.   The woman succumbed to the temptation and ate the fruit. She liked the taste and convinced her husband to eat of it also. From that moment, the union between God and man was broken. Sin, sickness and death entered the world and the world became corrupt.

God was not happy. He loved His children and wanted them to be close to Him always. But God knew this day would come and He’d already catered for it. He would send His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world to reconcile us back to Him.

And that's the story of Christmas.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3: 16

But Jesus didn't come to earth just to reconcile us back to God. He also came to reconcile us to each other.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.Colossians 1: 19 - 20 

Jesus lived and died here on earth that we might be reconciled to each other - Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, black and white. 

 

Christmas is a time for miracles. Jesus’s birth was a miracle, as was His life and death. If you have been separated from a close family member, it doesn’t matter how long, why not let the Christ of Christmas who came into this world to reconcile us back to God and to each other help you to reconcile with your loved ones?

Miracles do come through.

Have a merry Christmas.

Are you looking for creative ways to share the Christmas story with your children or grandchildren? Here are some suggestions from a previous post that will make it easy and fun.