Our past shapes who we are.
Remember Lot’s wife? She looked back at what she was leaving behind. Her life. Possibly all of her possessions, the life she experienced while she was living Sodom and Gomorrah. When we look back at our past life with “longings of days gone by,” it hinders our present circumstances.
Unlike Lot’s wife, we will not turn into a pillar of salt, but this type of longing stops us in our tracks. We cannot see what is before us because we are dwelling on the past.
That is not to say we cannot review our past, but our history is there to teach us. Our past should not hinder us good or bad, but help us learn and move on.
I have often heard people ask the question, “What would you tell your thirteen or twenty-one-year-old self?” This is an excellent way to reflect and offer advice from past experiences. When someone does this, they are not longing to go back to those times, but they are utilizing those experiences as teachable moments. Paul often reviewed his past experiences in his letters to the churches as points to learn.
In Philippians 3:5-8 he stated this,
“I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (NLT)
And in 2 Timothy 1: 12-14
“I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.”(NLT)
Looking back on our experiences is helpful when you use it to further the message of Christ. Our past imbodies who we are and what we will become. Let’s use our past to move forward and not hold us back.
How are you using your past experiences to glorify God?
