Leave It Behind!

“Rad, I gave my life to Christ about 5years ago, but the thing I struggle with is moving past the life I lived before I got saved. It haunts me sometimes. I wish I never got so deep.”

Wellll well wellll! You’re not alone.🤷🏽‍♀ We all gatsss to deal with the repercussions of the decisions we made before we came to Christ. Even Paul ocassionally did a throwback of how really far off he was before that light slapped his face on his way to Damascus.

I could give you a sermon on how and why those experiences are the reasons why you are who you are now in the Lord and how it has given you such strong convictions that no angel from heaven can change…AND how it’s probably your strongest tool in ministering to people; but let me concentrate on the reality of how badly it genuinely can haunt a person and how you can beat it till it leaves you be.

More likely than not, what you keep wondering is “Why did God allow me to go so far? What on earth was I thinking?” Hoooold Up! 🤚🏽 Let’s see if I can give you another perspective:

The larger the debt forgiven, the greater the possibility of loyalty. 

The farther away you are, the deeper your thirst will be for Him when you realize how far away you are. So Jesus told Simon Peter a story about this sinful woman in Luke 7:

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. ³⁷ When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. ³⁸ Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” 😬😬

⁴⁰ Then Jesus answered his thoughts [Mindblowing He is, this Jesus!]. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” ‘Go ahead, Teacher’, Simon replied.

⁴¹ Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. ⁴² But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, cancelling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

⁴³ Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.🤔”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. ⁴⁴ Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

Moses had to be a murderer who was running away to meet God in the richness of Himself: one on one in a desert! He had to remain in a desert because years on, he would have to lead the Israelites through it! David had to be an adulterer and a murderer just so he could understand the love and mercy of God. Joseph had to a boastful blabbermouth in order to piss off his brothers and be sold off to the very place he was going to rule as a governor! 💪🏽

Remaining in regret over your past is telling God, ‘You actually aren’t wise enough. You should have pulled me out earlier.’ It’s saying ‘I like your intention God, but this plan of yours was wack. You should have know better.”

Understand that God ALLOWED it for your own sake. If you were what you’re wishing you were then, WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT GOD TO SAVE YOU FROM? Can you imagine how God’s heart bleeds with tears when you constantly replay and beat yourself up for the very thing He used to bring you to Himself? He NEEDS you to accept that it’s part of who you are, and that if He has thrown that book away and given you a new Designer book, you have NO RIGHT to take occasional excursions back to those tattered sheets unless it’ll lead to some edification of some sort.

Leave me and I could write you a book! I just want to remind you:

When You Ache He Aches Too! ☹ You Can Let It Go!

Don’t put yourself and Him through such pain. It was all meant for your good!!

Big Question: HOW??

Whenever the accuser of the brethren throws your past at you, throw it back at him and say “In your face devil! I’m saved and redeemed!” Say it with your mouth until your heart and mind begin to believe it!

This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are ahead – Philippians 3:13

★  RAD ★