Don't Let the Lie That Your Past Defines You Keep You from Embracing the Grace That's Available to You Now

Lie: Your Past Defines You

Truth: My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me. I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

-Galatians 2:20

Have you ever made a choice that you regretted after you did it? If you said, no, congratulations! That’s incredible, and this website probably isn’t for you.

I’m in my early 40’s now, and I’ve done plenty of things that I wish I could go back and change, but that’s not how it works.

Someone wise said, “No one can go back and create a new beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” I used to think it would be so cool to have a “do-over” – to have a chance to do life over again without making mistakes, but that just isn’t realistic. Even if I got the “do-over,” I’d still mess up. I’d still sin.

Romans 3:23 says that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’re not perfect, and we will always fall short in the pursuit of perfection. Practice does not make perfect; practice makes progress.

There’s no way we can go through life completely without sin. Only one person ever did that, and He died on a cross for our sins because he knew that without him we were destined to be in eternal separation from him. That’s right. Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, came to earth to suffer for our sins because he knew we couldn’t live up to such a high standard of perfection.

He was blameless, but he took on the sins of the entire world, even the ones that haven’t been committed yet, and became the sacrifice for us we could never bear the burdens of our own sin. He became sin so that we could have life. And he would have done it for you even if you had been the only one.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ”

— 2 Corinthians 5:21

We don’t need a do-over because we have something so much better than that. We have access to God himself through Jesus. I don’t need to be perfect, and my past doesn’t define me because I choose to believe in Him and serve Him. And when I accepted Him as my savior, the Holy Spirit came to live in me, and He is my Advocate and Helper. That means I don’t have to look at my past with regret. Instead, I can look at it with thankfulness knowing that God has changed me and is still working in my heart.

When we come into a relationship with Christ, we begin a life-long process of change as we become more like Christ, which means that while our pasts may have been rough, God is fully capable and willing to change our hearts and our circumstances. It’s not our job to seek perfection. It’s our job to seek him.

Have you ever believed the lie that your past defines you? Do you believe it now? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.