The Pursuit: Chasing After Your New Life in ChristSample

“Put the Past Behind You”

In today’s reading, Paul is talking about his past. Paul is the guy who wrote quite a bit of the New Testament in the Bible. Before he met Jesus, he was very different. Look at the description of his old life. He was violent. He spoke against what God had done. He did bad things to people who believed in Jesus, including killing them. His life changed when he met Jesus, but he still had to live with his past.

You may be dealing with that at this point as well. Often, when you begin to study God’s Word and see what His standards are, you begin to feel guilty about things you did before you met Christ. If you had understood how bad those decisions would be, you would have acted very differently. Like Paul, you acted in ignorance and unbelief.

What can you do with our past? You can remember that God has forgiven it. You can be confident that Jesus died so you can be free from our past. You still deal with consequences for some bad decisions in your past, but you do not have to worry about God being mad at or not forgiving you. Further, you can let the changes in your life be a demonstration to others that God can forgive anyone- as Paul says, even the worst of sinners.

Take a few minutes today and thank God for forgiving your past. Ask God to help you bury the past and look to the future you have serving Him. Ask God to use the changes in your life to reach others.