Finding Hope When We Look in The Rearview Mirror of Our Lives, Part 1
Hello, my name is Ron Perry, and I have a past. My past consists of both good things and bad things. The mysterious difficulty of my past (and your past) is that the good things seem easy to forget and the bad things seem to be unforgettable. The good things in our lives are all a gift from God (Ecclesiastes 3:13; James 1:17). God has graciously sprinkled our lives with wonderful things and experiences, but they seem to quickly hide behind the bad memories. The bad things in our past all fall into one of two categories:
- Past sinful actions that I have done.
- Painful circumstances caused by the hands of others.
These bad things are hard to forget! It seems to only take a song, smell, or statement, and a flood of those bad memories flow back into our minds.
That past, whether good or bad, affects our present day lives. One Christian author defines the past as “the accumulation of events, choices, responses, habits, attitudes, desires, feelings and beliefs that frame the patterns, interpretations, and routines of our lives today.”
Our past is powerful! People fill pastors’ offices and counseling couches trying to figure out how to handle their bad past. It is imperative that we learn how to respond right to our past, and the Bible teaches that it is possible to do this. I’m going to take the next few posts and use this forum to help us respond right to our past. I’m calling this series “Finding Hope when We Look in the Rearview Mirror of our Lives.”
I’m looking forward to presenting some helpful truths to each of you. Your past–the sin and the suffering–does not have to be an unbearable burden that is always weighing you down! God provides perspective and power to move beyond that!
People like you and me tend to drift between two extremes when considering our past. Some people believe the past is nothing, causing them to simply focus on today. Their mentality is, “I just need to do right today. I will be fine. The past happened, but it doesn’t affect today.” Other people believe the past is everything, causing them to believe that they are failing today because of the past. Their mentality is, “My emotional state is tied to my past. Your past needs to be changed in order for me to be of any true value today.”
Both of these extremes are problematic. If the past is nothing, then why did God give us an ability to remember? Students of Scripture cannot escape the many examples of men and women whose past was instrumental in making them the servants of God that they were.
The view that the past is everything is equally troubling. The Scripture never encourages us to see ourselves as helpless victims who are unable to change. To be told you are a helpless victim may provide temporary comfort but not lasting comfort.
So, what is the right perspective? I submit that our past is something, because it is an evidence of the goodness and grace of God.
When a person thinks theologically, he can find his past to be something that illustrates the great goodness and grace of God. The key is thinking correctly about God.
Many of our pasts are filled with the following:
- Unanswered Questions
- Unaddressed Hurts
- Unsolved Problems
- Unwise Choices
- Unconfessed Sin
- Unlearned Lessons
All six of these contribute to our past being a heavy weight to us when we fail to process them through a right thinking about God. When some people look back over their past, they think it consists of nothing but the bad; but a careful review of the past with a Scriptural lens may reveal that God was doing a good and gracious work in your life.
The famed preacher C.H. Spurgeon struggled with bouts of depression and deep discouragement but found what he called a healing balm. Here is what he said,
“Oh, there is, in contemplating on Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balm for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”
To the person struggling with your past, think right about God and immerse yourself in the richness of His character. You will find that your past is a wonderful testimony to the goodness and grace of God. Our past weakens us and weighs us down when we fail to see it through a Scriptural view of God.
Ron Perry is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church of Folsom, California. This post first appeared on the Faith Baptist Church blog page, and we republish with his permission.
Photo by Taras Zaluzhnyi on Unsplash