i heard a speaker the other day...mentioning how often throughout scripture, God tells us to "remember...remember...remember" so, yes, sometimes we need to take a look back in order to move into the future that God has planned for us...but we also need to be freed or liberated from the past to live our lives fully and successfully...as devastating as it might have been, the past is just part of our lives...we need to remember that we also have the future...and the present...
i have often asked in my lifetime..."why did that happen to me?" or "why did i have to go through that?" as if somehow i should have been removed from feeling pain...i think that it is a normal response...the key...i think...is not to dwell there...i truly believe that i may never fully know the answer to these questions...but God knows...and whether i understand it or not...those things were the very thing He used to bring me to where i am right now...
i wouldn't be who i am today if it weren't for what i've gone through in my life...and today i can truly say that i am grateful for the painful things the Lord allowed me to experience...because He has used them to develop things in me that could never have been formed in any other way...based on what i had or didn't have...i had to develop other aspects of myself...like my personality, my intelligence, and my talents...and from my own struggles with rejection and loneliness...i developed empathy and compassion for others who struggle with those feelings...
the things my family went through also shaped me...as i watched my mother and father live their lives...i saw what humility and grace look like and learned that the difficult circumstances of life...however much they may weigh us down or cripple us...don't have to dictate who we become...
even recent wounds have been unexpected gifts to me...in all these trials...God ministered a mercy and tenderness to me that i can now minister to others...and as He has led me into the freedom of forgiving others, i can help others get there too...because i've "been there"
as our wounds become scars...they become more than reminders of what has been...they become reminders of what God has done...we now have something to give...we are able to dispense God's grace and mercy through the very scars that were once our wounds...what was once damaged is now made whole...what we once hid in shame is now our (His) glory...what was ugly is now beautiful...
when we expose our scars to others, we are saying "i understand what you've gone through...i understand the pain, the injustice, the betrayal...but take heart...there is One who heals...those gaping wounds will close too...only scars will be left"
God has touched the wounds of my past and turned my over-sensitivity to the opionions of others into a deep sensitivity to their needs...i am able to comfort others with the comfort i've received...
john trent wrote "everyone is influenced by his or her past...but as christians, none of us has to be controlled by it"
i know that i wouldn't be who i am today if it weren't for what i've gone through in my life...neither would you...we've all gone through a lot...but the key is this...we've come through it...and that for me...gives me great hope for whatever i will go through today and what i will go through tomorrow...
deliverance finally comes when you confront your past and put it in it proper perspective...it happened to you but it is not you...you survived the trauma...you too can walk again...
serita ann jakes
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