Day 157: That was Then, This is Now

Psalms 129:1-2, 4

Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth - let Israel now say - Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed over me...The Lord is righteous; He has cut the cords of the wicked.

My favorite part about this scripture is that there is a shift from the first statement to the second. There is a past and a present presented here. Saying they used to afflict us greatly but not anymore, they still afflict us but now they will not and cannot overcome us. It also has this air about that reminds me of Isaiah 54:17, that no weapon formed against us will prosper. As long as God is on our side we will be alright.

Have you ever had a moment whether joking or not, you have said something along the lines of, “I will not be defined by my past”, or “That was the past…”? It gives us and others the idea that we are not our past and we will not be defined by it. That it what I get from the above scripture as there is a shift in the middle with the word ‘now’. Here’s how it happened back then but this is what is happening now, something has changed from what used to be and all we are focused on is, what it. I bring this up because I feel as if many of us especially those of us in our twenties are defined by our past, we are defined by the person we used to be. As we get older and we start to change, our mindset starts to change, we start to change our ways. We stop doing things that we used to do. There are many shifts that happen in our lives around this time. Many times people will not allow us to change or accept the change that has taken place within us because they are still defining us by the person we used to be and the things we used to do. We even do this to ourselves. I feel like sometimes we are even defined by a past that does not belong to us. What I mean by that is, because our parents did things we are bound to do what they did. We are in a way subject to take the same steps or path our parents took. Sometimes people define us by the mistakes or sins of our parents before they even give us a chance. They never even get to know us for who we truly are.

I want to encourage you today and let you know that you are not the person you used to be. Yes, we have all made mistakes and bad decisions, trust me I’ve made some very bad mistakes and sketchy decisions in my twenty-four years of living. I used to sit and sulk in my mistakes, but I had to realize that God did not send His son to die on that cross so that I could sit around in shame. He does not want we to sulk and worry about what we cannot change. Most importantly, God does not define us by our past, who we used to be is not who we are. If God was worried about our past, He would not have sent Jesus to save us, God knew that we had a future and He wants that future to be spent with Him. When Jesus came and died on that cross He stopped our past from invading our future. Jesus took away our sin so that we can now say, our sin is behind us, it is no longer who we are or how we live. That is our testimony, that Jesus took us and made us new.

We can now say, I used to look for love in all the wrong places but I have since found it in Jesus and I am no longer defined by my past. Who I was doesn’t compare to who I am. All those things that happened before, that was then but this, this is now, and now I am much better. I am no longer run by my sinful ways I have submitted my life to Christ and become a new creation. Who I am has cut ties with who I was.

Response

I want to leave you with a scripture today and respond however you feel led. Whatever you do, be sure to end with a prayer.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 158!