Everyone has a past, but most people are buried in the grave of their past negative experiences. Your past can deprive you of your greatness.
“No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.” _ Matthew 9:16-17
Your past and your future cannot travel together in a vehicle to greatness. You must choose which one to hold unto. That is to hold on to the past and remain a prisoner to it and never reach greatness or embrace what the future holds and reach a great destiny that lies ahead.
I was a victim and a prisoner of my past life; regrets of wrong choices I made and the decisions I took in the past caged me. For so long I carried the baggage of my past regrets while trying to climb to the top of the mountain of greatness, but anytime I go halfway, I get weighed down and roll down back to the bottom. Until the day I encountered Hebrews 12:1 which says, ‘... let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (KJV).’ This encounter unveils that I cannot climb to the peak of the mountain of greatness with a weight of past regrets. Lay down the baggage of your past and focus on what is on the inside of you for which God created you. Forget your past failures and present predicament. Life is too short to live it all on regret.
God is too righteous and merciful to hold grudges against you. Whatever you have done in the past or yesterday goes with yesterday. Do not let the Devil make you feel like God is done with you. You may feel like He is so mad and is seated on His throne, frowning at your past mistakes. Let me tell you this, the day God will be done with you, you will be dead. You will not see another day. But if you open your eyes and see a new day, God is telling you, “I am not done with you yet; I have better plans for you; I do not care what mistakes you made yesterday, all I see is the glorious destiny I have for you.”
Life is too short to live it all on regret.
Any day you woke up, it is evidence that God is giving you a chance to take a turn to His side. He is calling you, but you are not listening because you are too busy listening to the voice of condemnation by the Devil. Rebuke that voice of condemnation and listen to God’s voice of love that is calling you to give you a new beginning.
God is love! And He loves us even before we were born, He knows we are going to fall; He knows that it is hard to live in the flesh, that is why Jesus Christ came to give us rest and a fresh start of life. He is patiently waiting on you to realize that he is always ready to give you that life that you deserve and desire despite your past wrongs, but do not take the chances for granted. Because life is too short to waste it on doing wrong.
So many times, wrong choices, and mistakes of the past have hooked us down. We let the pains of our past hinders our future from coming forth to us. When all we woke up every morning to think about is our past mistakes and pains, then we are going to get stoked in the yard of it forever until the day we lay it off for a new beginning and a future that God has prepared for us.
Every mistake or failure is a step forward toward perfection and maturity. Do you know that what every terrible thing that had happened to you is dirt? And dirt does not appear pleasant to the eye of anyone that sees it. But know this, a seed planted on a clean ground does not germinate, even if it does, it will not have a solid ground to dip its roots on. But a seed planted in the dirt germinates and grows well because the dirt becomes nutrients to it.
Your past is like a nutrient on you, it may not be pleasant or does not look good on you, but it is just the essential nutrients that you need to grow into a greener tree whose roots are holding dip into the dirty soil. Make the most of everything bad that happened to you. Take it as an opportunity to learn something new for your perfection and maturity. Greatness is for people who are mature and willing to take responsibility not to let their past affect their growth and fulfilling their actual purpose.
"Every mistake or failure is a step forward toward perfection and maturity."
Your past is a big milestone and a threat to your perfect future destiny. Take responsibility for your past, accept your mistakes and wrong choices positively, which is the only way to build a new beginning.
Anytime you fall into difficulty or a terrible situation, use this formula to find out whether the situation happened for your growth or your decrease.
Find two pieces of paper and write the positive lessons you learn from the situation on one piece and write what negative effects does the situation caused you on the other paper. If the positive lessons outnumber the negative effects, it means the situation is to your favor. It is for you to grow. But if the negative effects outnumber the positive lessons, then it is too bad for you.
Stop looking at your mistakes and pains, but look up to the good that God is bringing out of you through the difficulty and terrible situations. The story of your past is just the perfect story that God needs to build you into what he wants. He needs someone just like you with a testimony of transformation to use as an instrument for the transformation of others. Because if you have not been broke and poor, how will you have compassion on the poor when you are rich; or if you have not been a prisoner or an addict, how will you know and help people who are prisoners and addicts.
God is into the transformation business. He is looking for worthless vessels to transform into useful and worthy vessels. He is looking for thieves, fornicators, idolaters, smokers, drunkards, thugs, prostitutes, etc. to transform them into great men like preachers, teachers, evangelists, prophets and prophetess, and governors, presidents, congressmen, great businessmen, and world-changers. He wants to bring something out of nothing.
Your past is just the examination you need to take for your glorious destiny. Stop regretting and turn to God. You are that perfect person He needs for the task He has for you and no one else. Just ask Him today, He is ready to take and transform you!
I was also a nobody. But God made me somebody by His grace and mercy. So, as the old song says, “I am just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can change anybody.”
See what Paul the once worst of all sinners wrote in Ephesian 3:3-10:
3 All of us once lived among these people, and followed the desires of our corrupt nature. We did what our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we deserved God's anger just like everyone else.
4 But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us.
5 We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God's kindness that saved you.)
6 God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him.
7 He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come.
8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God.
9 It's not the result of anything you've done, so no one can brag about it.
10 God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.
Source: 12 Principles for Fulfilling your Purpose by Dalton Jesmiel
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