Mind set number one – my past determines my present and future.
(Prov 29:18) Where there is no vision, the people perish:
Last week we talked a little about wilderness mindsets that can hinder our spiritual growth. The first one we look at this week is the mindset that our past determines our present and future.
Israel had been in bondage to slavery for over 400 years and now they were free and away from the task masters and their whips; but they were also away from the protection afforded them by the armies of Egypt from foreign invaders. They also did not have access to the many foods available to them in Egypt. Now they look around and see nothing but desert in front of them, they see no God but hear only His voice or His commands through His man, Moses. They are about to enter a new life, but what will that life be and how will they be able to cope with the problems and challenges ahead of them. Problems arise now after their deliverance as they think upon the future while focusing on their past.
When we come to Christ we face similar challenges and ideas. Our past will often interfere with our present and even our future; not because we are bound by it but because we allow it to. Some come to Christ from a Godly home, others from a “church-going” home and still others from non-church-going or even atheistic or ungodly homes. It does not matter what type home or background you come from, all need to be saved, have their sins forgiven and enter into the family of God. The old expression says, “God does not have any grandchildren.” This simply means that we are not Christian because we were born into a Christian family; everyone needs to acknowledge they are sinners, confess their sin and seek forgiveness through the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Your past may have been one of a Christian home but perhaps your church leaders were hypocritical and they lived differently at home than they did at church. Perhaps you came from an abusive home where one parent abused the other or totally dominated them and the rest of the family. Perhaps there was a lot of anger involved in the home, drunkenness, drug abuse and etc. None of this means you cannot be free from the emotional and spiritual baggage the devil tied on to you. When Jesus came into His ministry campaign He went into the synagogue and read from Isaiah and declared that this was fulfilled in Him – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” He has come to heal the broken hearted – many people come to him broken because of abuse and being beaten down by others. Jesus also came to set at liberty those that are bruised – those that are bruised have been broken in pieces by the things they suffered before coming to Christ. Many have been broken emotionally by circumstances and abuses. They come to Christ but they are still imprisoned by their past and haunting memories and anger and resentment. Jesus wants you to move beyond that and enter into His grace and fullness and allow him to re-make you today for the future. You cannot hope for a better past but by His grace you can attain a better future.
Israel grumbled and complained about anything and everything – they did not have a problem, they were the problem. They kept looking at their situation and then looked back thinking that they had made a mistake leaving Egypt. They began with bad thoughts and these always produce bad attitudes. They were not looking at things through the eye of faith but through the eyes focused upon the flesh and its corruption.
We must not look at yesterday with eyes of bondage but with eyes upon the new life in Christ and liberty and freedom from that past. We must look upon Him who has defeated death, hell and the grave and now sits on the right hand of the Father in heaven and ever lives to intercede for us. Through Jeremiah God said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Begin today for that expected end through your loving Heavenly Father.