By His Stripes We Are Healed
A father had a young son who was constantly in trouble so one day, the father went upstairs to find his son getting into things that he was told not to mess with. When the boy saw his father, he instantly knew that he was in trouble. Slowly the father took off his belt. He took his shirt off and then asks the boy to give him 10 lashes with the belt. The boy started crying and said he couldn’t do it. The father said that this was part of his discipline. Grudgingly the boy gave his father ten lashes from his father’s own belt. The boy was crying profusely when it was over. The father said, “Son, do you know why I did this? I did this to show you that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. He was beaten for our sakes even though He was innocent.”
From that day forward, the boy’s behavior changed dramatically. All because of an intentional lesson of love about Jesus. The young boy now understood that Jesus paid a penalty He did not owe for a debt that we could not pay.
Forget About it
Do you ever kick yourself for your past mistakes? We do. We try not to do it because it is unproductive, but it remains a temptation when we make a blunder that we thought we had learned not to make. Evidently we are not alone because other people tell us they do the same thing. What is it about us and our inability to let the past be the past? Of course we need to learn from our mistakes, but having done so, why do we then form a weapon out of our mistakes with which to bash ourselves? Is it not bad enough that others will not allow us to forget? Must we remind ourselves of our own failures?
Nevertheless, many live their lives with little or no joy, or personal confidence because past errors have become a weight around their necks. Their past failures plague their lives and haunt their minds. The decision to move forward is often set aside because of the feeling of uncertainty and fear about their ability to make the right choices. Bound up, fearful and frustrated many do their best to just move on with life – yet they remain focused on the past.
Yet, in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we are able to lay aside our past mistakes and focus on the One who does not fail and the work that He wants to do in our lives. As Paul said, “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.” Philippians 3:13-14 NIV In another place he gives his reason for his personal confidence when he writes, “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:4-5 NIV
Out of one’s spiritual experience God is able, not only to heal and save the eternal soul, but also to give personal direction and confidence with which one can live his life – in spite of mistakes. Realizing that it is most often only we who are holding ourselves in bondage to past mistakes, Christ seeks to set us free from the past and give us newness of life through Himself. (John 10:10)
Sadly for some, their lives often conform to their misdirected manner of thinking. Unable or unwilling to forgive themselves they seem to sink further and further into the pit of despair and hopelessness because they have become obsessed with how they have failed in the past. The good news, however, is that we can be set free from that defeated way of thinking. In Christ, all predetermined notions of future failure are nullified. We are given a clean slate and a new opportunity to become more than we have previously been in life. In Christ, the past is transformed from a legacy of failure to a learning experience that we can build upon.
There is power in believing that, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 There is even greater power in allowing God’s power and the guidance of His Word to transform us into what we had previously only hoped we could be Why not let the past be the past today?
Forget about it!
A photoset of smiling owls.
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