Our pasts can haunt us, even hold us back. Our present can be hurried, and mixed up, and we can look at our future with doubt at times. Sound familiar? I remember walking into our church almost eighteen years ago, looking around, looking at others and thinking, "I can never be like these people."I looked at others who had been in church their whole lives and here I was just walking in. To look at a distance all seemed almost perfect, untouchable for me. I thought, "No one here has done the things I have done."
But I was so wrong. Church is not for perfect people. It is a house full of sinners, looking for the same thing, a Savior. I realized after a time that sure, some may not have done the things I have done, but we all have a yesterday we look back at. We all have today that we struggle with, its just our struggles might be different, but they are struggles none the less, and we all have a future, a future in which we are searching for more, for better, for peace. And there is One who can give all that and more, Jesus Christ.
Where there are people, there are struggles. Where there are churches, there are hurting people. No one goes to church because they are perfect. There is only One who is perfect and that is Jesus Himself.
It doesn't matter what your status is. You may be of wealth, of poor, you may have much or very little, in God's eyes we are all the same. We are His children. Color, your back ground, your house, your car, your clothes, your look, your accent, we were all made in His image, and at the foot of the cross we are all level!! There is no higher ground, there is no lower ground. It doesn't matter of your past, He sees us with the same love His Father has in Him. A perfect love from a perfect Savior.
We can struggle thinking we are not good enough, or why would He want to use me, but in our humbleness, in our weakness is where He shines. He doesn't need us to be puffed up, and bragging all the time about what we do and when we do it. He isn't shining through then, we are taking the spotlight from Him. Every good thing that comes from me, is not me at all, but Him.
Praise Jesus at the foot of the cross we are all the same. No competing, no pushing forward, shoving others behind. It doesn't matter what we have or who we are, all that matters at the cross is who we know, and if we know Jesus, then we have found our way in this messed up world before us. We are to live in this world, but not be of this world. This is not our home, there is so much more ahead for us and Jesus is there, leading the way.
We can't spend our time getting caught up in our pasts. Yesterday was just that, yesterday, and today is a new day with Him. I am learning as I grow that I will never be perfect until heaven, so for now, all I must do is strive to be who Jesus wants me to be. If it doesn't have an impact on heaven is it really worth our time? Jesus knows we are going to falter and yes, even fall into sin from the temptation before us, but we can overcome with His strength. We may not be sinless, but we can sin less with His strength and wisdom.
I have let my past go, and in place of that past, Jesus came to live in my heart. I don't have to be like anyone else, all I must do is be me, the me He created me to be. We have a gracious God who loves us, and wants the best for us. If He is willing to over look my past, I think I too should be willing to lay it down at the cross, for isn't that what the cross is for us? Laying down our past and picking up our future?
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
Psalm 103:12
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
2 Corinthians 5:17
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."
Romans 5:8-9
