Preparing for the Future

 

Sometimes we think our past limits our future. We may have made some seriously bad choices or lived a way that left a mess in our wake and think that because of my past, I’m not “good enough for church”. You might think that you need to “get your life right” or “get right with God” before you can come and worship. The problem is, this line of thinking is just a little backwards.

If past sins kept us from coming to God, then no one would be here today. Paul tells us in the letter to the churches in Rome that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Earlier in the same chapter Paul will make reference to Ecclesiastes concerning each person’s status before God without Christ: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” (Rom 3:10-11).

No, instead what we find in Jesus is the clearing of our debts, the cancelling of what we owe, the payment for our past has been made through the cross of Christ. In Jesus, we are freed from our past, we are forgiven, and we are new. Again turning to Paul, this time to the letter to the church in Colossae, we learn:  “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:14).

Don’t let the mistakes of your past keep you from allowing God to do something new with your future. Christ offers forgiveness. Christ offers a break from the past. Christ offers hope everlasting. Will you accept it?