How to Face Your Past

It always affects me the same. It’s the phone call that begins: “Donnie…” I suppose its because I know only people from my very distant past call my by that name! So many things come flooding back into my mind from those very early days. Isn’t a weird feeling to reflect back over your life? It’s like looking through a photo album. There are thousands of emotions and feelings caught up in each picture. Some are joyous and delightful. Yet, some pictures drag us back to a time of turmoil. Sometimes the turmoil may never have been resolved. Yet, dealing with out past effectively is one of the most important things we can learn to insure our happiness in the present. People have learned to deal with their past in several ways. Some simply ignore it. This is the individual who lives only for today without thought of yesterday and inevitably commits those same mistakes that brought them to where they are now. Others attempt to rewrite the past. They take their verbal pen in hand and create a whole new life that has little or no basis in truth. Still others merely live in the past. They are permanently attached to the “good, old days.” They’ve never moved on. The best way to deal with the past is to learn from it. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Roman Church:

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4 NIV).

There are four steps that I think may be of help to you in learning from your past.

1. First, begin with prayer. It does seem like a strange place to begin as you review the past, but it will keep you properly focused. Starting with who God is keeps us from going off the path.

What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? (Romans 8:31-35 NLT).

2. Second, reflect and give thanks. As you look back over your life, there may be plenty of things to mar the view. Bad decisions, failed opportunities and personal brokenness may litter the landscape. This is the primary reason that you take God with you when you look back.

3. Third, discover and confess your sin. Here’s the part where many of us get into trouble. After we have looked back, we forget to ask the question, “Now what?” This can be the greatest question you can ask yourself. You may have stumbled and tumbled all over the place, but what will prevent you from being victimized by your past is the questions: “Now what?” and “What am I going to do now?” What does God want us to do with it?

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. (1 John 1:9 NLT).

4. Fourth, commit yourself to a new direction in the future. In 1886 Daniel B. Tower, director of the music department at Chicago Bible Institute, was leading the music for evangelist D. L. Moody’s series of meetings in Brockton, MA. A young man rose to give a testimony and said, “I am not quite sure – but I am going to trust, and I’m going to obey.” From this quote came the hymn we know as “Trust and Obey”. Trust and obedience work hand-in-hand. Trust without obedience is empty bragging. Obedience without trust is legalism. I trust God with the things that have gone on before in my life. I trust Him to forgive and remove those things as far as the east is from the west. I trust when the Father said that the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, paid the penalty for my sins so that I could become part of His family. Then I may obey. Are you ready to face your past today? You can!