Thoughts to ponder...


I know im not the only one who have decisions and things of the past that tend to creep into the present. The reminders of faults and attributes of inadequacy that somehow seem to know just the right time to overwhelm the mind causing a domino effect of trips and stumbles along the road we are currently following. There is a pretty popular scripture that comes to mind..."Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (NIV) Phil.3-13-14...One thing about this scripture I take notice of is the tense in action verbs...notice it says "Forgetting" and "straining". When reading that i see a continuous effort by Paul. Something he is having to implement daily in order to get closer to winning the ultimate prize He was promised in Christ. 


So where am i going with all this? A couple of different places actually. First is to note that a misunderstanding of our "past" and "future" and the process of following Christ through that is a huge stronghold the enemy likes to use in our lives. From the beginning of creation, Satan used God's truth mixed will tiny hints of deception to completely altar the trajectory of what could have been for man kind. The scriptures are flooded with verses that tell us to go against our emotional reactions of the flesh...from the Proverbs all the way to the new testament when we are told to turn the other cheek and to not just go a mile with a stranger but go multiple. However, this is the complete opposite of what Satan wants us to do. He wants us to be controlled by our emotions. He wants us to eliminate trust, truth, and faith that we are guaranteed in Jesus and instead dwell in the moment of shame, guilt, and pain this world tends to offer. 

I don't know about you but I have found myself in my head, not only dwelling on the past hurts I have caused others and myself, but also the shame and guilt of thinking i am spiritually failing in the present bc i haven't FORGOT the past and completely let it go. Because my past still creeps in at times i must not be pursuing God enough or the right way. And that is exactly what the enemy delights in. Confusion and blindness to God's continuous grace. A few Sunday's back the pastor was preaching through the ten commandments. Which, if i am being completely honest, i wasn't too excited about because the ten commandments was elementary. In my prideful mind, I didn't see what else there was to learn about them as they are pretty cut and dry. Welp, let me tell you, i was humbled. This particular Sunday was 'Do not kill'... pretty non-applicable right ?! Wrong...It never ceases to blow my mind how no matter how much time you spend in the Bible or how many times you read even the same things, God's Word still speaks truth. And that Sunday I was left reminded of it. I know I know, you're like come on Bethany just spit it out...

So Moses, a Hebrew by birth who by all accounts should have been killed by crocodiles as was the ordinance given at that time by the ruler of the land, who instead was floated in a basket down the river, only to be found by the daughter of the ruler who issued this heinous decree and become adopted into the royal family. If only it ended there...Moses grew up during a time where his people were living a life of captivity as slaves to Egypt and instead of continuing to live a royal life, he would go on to lead his blood-line people out of captivity and to the Promise land . In this 40+ year time frame we see God do all kinds of things. And one of those things was the presentation to Moses of the 10 Commandments. 

Hang with me...here's where i will tie it all together...So imagine this...Moses is on top of a moutain in the very presence of God. A honor that very few people ever had in the physical degree he experienced. And God had chosen him to present these God-given commandments to, get this, 600,000 men alone...that number excluding all women and children which would then be educationally assumed that total population was potentially around 2 million people. So now lets step back a bit to where i was briefing you on Moses' history or PAST and how he got to where he was...one thing i left out was prior to Moses delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he was seen by the Hebrew people murdering an Egyptian for his harshness and cruelty to a Hebrew slave. Leading him to then flee from Egypt temporarily because even the Hebrew people feared him. Yep, you read that right...Moses was, by God's newly given commandments, already in contempt...a murderer. 

So, here i am imagining this moment so much easier. The mixture of emotions swirling around Moses, i could only imagine, but also the freedom of mercy and grace in the reality that even though he was a sinner, God's plans and purpose were still present and active. God could have chosen anyone to hand those commandments over too. And though we know all have sinned and fallen short per scripture, there were plenty of people in which we do not know the specific sins or commandments they may have broken. But instead, God chose not just a sinner, but a SEEN sinner. Someone that wasn't hiding their past in the dark but more than likely daily fighting the shame and guilt, trying to lead a people who witnessed his transgressions. God chose someone that would not just lead, but have to lead by example. Someone that would outwardly reflect that there is LAW but there is GRACE. Someone who now, due to an actual written law, was pressed to daily live "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead"...Maybe i am crazy but this hit me head on. 

So if you expect to forget the past...well i don't see that happening. And that's okay. The past is a reminder of not only our need for God but the goodness of God's grace and the reminder that God does not operate off of emotion but rather truth. It reminds us of our unavoidable human nature but also our supernatural strength we have been given to overcome. Daily we must make a choice to leave the past and push ahead...and push and push and push...because, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And we can count on attaining the victory that His blood and the cross promised.

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