The Divine Exchange: Trading Your Plans for God’s PurposeSample

When the Past Loses Its Scent

For the longest time, I carried my past around like an overly packed suitcase. You know the kind—the one you keep dragging through life, convinced you might still need something inside. Every mistake, regret, and “what-if” was folded neatly inside it.

While reading Genesis 31, something caught my eye. Jacob left Laban’s household quietly, and when Laban came chasing after him, he couldn’t find him. It was as if Jacob’s scent—the very evidence of his past—had been erased. That image stopped me mid-read.

I realised that God had done the same thing for me. The things that both haunted and defined me—failed ventures and success in business, poor and great decisions, and seasons I wasn’t proud of and those that men applauded me for—had lost their power to identify me. Grace had wiped away the evidence.

The funny thing about grace is that it doesn’t file your past away; it deletes it. People may remember, but Heaven doesn’t. And when God sets you free, not even the enemy can trace your steps back to both shame and success.

That day, I unpacked my metaphorical suitcase. Turns out, all the things I thought I needed from the past didn’t fit the new journey anyway.

Lesson
When God delivers you, He doesn’t just change your direction—He removes your scent from where you’ve been. Stop rehearsing old mistakes; they’ve already been forgiven. Grace doesn’t leave forwarding addresses for guilt. The past may still knock, but it no longer knows your new address. On the flip side, stop dwelling on past successes.