In virtually every situation, one’s history matters. Doctors want to know your medical background in order to provide treatment today. Schools want to know your academic record. Employers go looking for the details of your past. Everyone wants to know the past, with the intent of predicting the future. Everyone wants to know except God. God does not seem to care or even have an interest.
Starting fresh is always difficult. The price paid and debts carried from yesterday’s decisions hamper your ability to move forward. I find myself, like many others, locked into certain patterns of behavior. The ability to change course, especially if one perceives that there will be impact on friends and family. How do we break the cycle? How do we change course?
The answer is simple yet complex. We cannot break the cycle. We do not have the ability to change course in a material way. God can break the cycle and offers the gift of change to all. God is not interested in our past because it has no value in the decision to start anew. He cleans the slate each time we come to Him. Our family status, economic standing, and education credentials do not change His approach to us. God sacrificed all to make this gift available, and offer it without conditions.
We have nothing to give for this gift other than our very souls. In the end, that is what is at stake. Our soul, now and eternally, is at risk. Starting fresh, building a future that will last is the choice each of us have each day. “If you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regards to where you are from or how you were brought up.” (Romans 2.10)
Will I let go of my past to start fresh with God? Do I trust the gift he offers to you and I? Letting go, embracing what God does, walking in hope can be the start of a new life.
The offer is on the table; will we take it?
