And In This Corner The Battle With Our Past

Have you ever felt like you were in a boxing match with your past? I can hear the announcer now "and in this corner weighing in with all the past hurts and mistakes is the one and only vicious PAST. And in this corner there is little old ME." "PAST comes out swinging with all its might first with a hurt to the heart, then a mistake to the gut doubling ME over and right back with two more hits to the heart and ME is down for the count." "I believe its over for ME this time with hits like that ME won't recover." That's how it feels when your past hurts and mistakes try to defeat you. It is like you have been thrown in a ring to take a beating from the heavy weight champion, but it doesn't have to be this way. Once we give Jesus our hearts and life and he has forgiven us our sins, then the past is just that the past. It's like a tag team match, we just have to take the hand of Jesus and he goes in and defeats the past in our place.

When we become Christ followers we don't have to be hurt by our past mistakes and we don't have to let the old hurts hurt us, but even the strongest in faith will have times that the past will cause them pain. It doesn't mean our faith isn't as strong, it just means that is when we need to reach out to Jesus and remember that we are forgiven and a changed person. We aren't that person we were when those things occurred. We are a new creation in Christ, a new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."(KJV)
In the past couple of days I have had to remind myself that the past is past and that my Heavenly Father loves me unconditionally. The things of my past don't have power to hurt me anymore because I am a child of God, a co-heir with Jesus, loved by my Heavenly Father and forgiven. We all can think of something that we wish we hadn't done, or think of things that have been said or done that has hurt us and if we let it, it can and will beat us up. If we give our past power it will hurt us, but we don't have to give it that power. We take its power away by turning it over to Christ Jesus and then leaving it there.

Recently my past mistakes were thrown at me by someone close to me. It is easy for me to let it get me down. In fact I was very hurt by them bringing it up. The blow from my past knocked me to the ground but didn't knock me out. I called out to Jesus and he helped me back up off the mat and got me back into the fight only this time I let him take control. Jesus gave me the power over my past.

The apostle Paul had a past of persecuting the Christians, but once he gave his life to Christ and became one of the believers, he went on to tell others about Christ. He had a past that he didn't like, but he used it to remind people that Christ took all that with him to the cross and totally forgave him. He couldn't change what he had done, but he could change who he was then and that is exactly what he did when he asked forgiveness and became a follower of Christ. No longer was he that man that persecuted believers, he was a man who gave his life trying to encourage believers and show sinners the way to Christ.


Christ wipes our sins away when we ask forgiveness and remembers them no more.
Ps 103:12 " as far as the east is from the west,so far has he removed our transgressions from us"(NIV) That doesn't mean that He can't use our past to help others. He can use that to help us witness and tell others what he has done for us. Paul reminded others of his past so that they can see how far he had come from that past and how much Christ had done for him. So our past doesn't have to have power over us and hurt us anymore. Just remember we are forgiven and we are not the person we were in that past because of Jesus. PTL

KO the PAST in Jesus name. Ask forgiveness and it is done. Ask Jesus in your heart and you are a new person. Let God change you into that new creature in Christ. Then the PAST no longer has power to hurt but can be a powerful tool to help. Thank you Jesus for your love, mercy and forgiveness and for this new person in you.

Written by
Deb Forbes
Aug. 20, 2010