Making a right choice

Did you know that the past only affects your present if you allow it to?

 

While that is an "easy statement to write," I understand it is very difficult to do so.

 

Letting the hurts from the past go is never easy.

 

At the end of the day, however, the only one who ultimately is hurt (in not letting go) is you - or me.

 

There is a constant longing from the Holy Spirit for us to live in the present - and prepare for the future.

 

Paul said it best in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

 

Gang, the old is gone, the new has come and is here!

 

I would suggest that every time those old feelings of hurt and woundedness come, you can rise above them by saying, "I am a new creature in Christ!  I no longer have to be bound by my feelings from the past!  I will not give into the feelings that ultimately come in from the enemy.  I will walk in the joy and love of Christ this day!  Greater is the Spirit of Christ in me than all of the attacks of the enemy!"

 

Can I tell you something?  You are worth something.  In Christ, you have value.  You have meaning.  You have purpose.   

 

I read today that in his memoir, Greg Bellow, the son of the famous 20th century American novelist Saul Bellow, writes movingly about his relationship with his father.

 

A reviewer for The New Yorker magazine called Greg's book less a memoir than a "speaking wound." Greg was eight years old when his father told him that he and Greg's mom were separating. The father and son were sitting on a bench in Central Park when the news was delivered.

 

Greg wrote:

"I responded by making a snowball and letting it fly at a nearby pigeon.  What I really wished for was the courage to hit my father with a snowball.  Under the childhood anger my father expected and hoped to see was sadness born of losing the parent who understood me the best.  At eight, I felt like a deep-sea diver cut off from my air supply."
 

The reviewer concluded his article on Greg Bellow's book by stating, "At sixty-nine, Greg Bellow is still the drowning deep-sea diver."

 

Are you going to allow yourself to live a life such as Greg Bellow has lived?  Or are you going to walk victoriously in Christ?

 

The choice is yours.

 

Just a thought for a Thursday.