Past Helps

A storm was brewing visibly on the horizon. I could smell that familiar scent of fear.

How could I handle this new trial? I didn’t want more hurdles to feverishly conquer. I just wanted peace, no more problems that disturb and bring up unwanted memories from my past.

Have you ever read the book, “Putting Your Past In Its Place?” I am going through it presently in two different counseling cases. I appreciate Steve Viars’ easy-to-understand style and the way he organizes difficult elements of a person’s past.

One of the chapters describes how our past can be our worst enemy, but in the next chapter he points out that our past can also be our best friend. It depends on how you process what happened, and what God was doing as it happened. He brings out two examples from the Scriptures – David and Job.

In I Samuel 17 David is presented with Goliath’s taunts to the armies of Israel. David overhears the vulgar threats that Goliath is spewing out. Although not a part of the army, David expresses that he is willing to go and fight this giant. He describes to those who try to stop him that in his past God helped him to kill the lion or the bear that came to take one of his sheep that he was watching. He recalled the past blessing of God and it poured courage over him to again trust the LORD for the present challenge.

Likewise in Job 2:10, Job is hit with intense difficulties, even to the point where his wife urges him to curse God and die. But Job responds with:

“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Job remembered all the good God had showered upon him. He let his past help him process his present.

Thankfulness Builds a Resevoir

Developing thinkful neural pathways in your brain can actually reshape a hard past into a faithful friend. You learn to recognize God’s fingerprints. You see deeper than the scarred surface. You record day after day blessings from God that He graciously bestows. You learn to trust this incredible God that is sovereign and loves His children deeply.

You develop a knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2b-3). This knowledge, this mental thinkfulness, prepares you so that when you are faced with new challenges, you can call on your past as a trusted friend for perspective, wisdom, comfort, and courage.

Rehearsing the Past

God commanded the children of Israel to teach their children about how God had helped them in the past.

“… when your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘what do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

Joshua 4:21-24

It is the Father’s will for us to remember how He helped us in the past, and by remembering, we would be emboldened to trust more presently.

God tells us in Romans 15:4 that whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Begin Building

Prepare yourself today for the battles coming tomorrow. Develop thinkful patterns to equip yourself to fight the sorrow and doubts that will doubtless tempt you in days to come. Have a reserve of trusted friends from the past that will testify to your shaking faith that indeed our God IS faithful! He helped us in the past and He will help us now. He will not leave nor forsake us. He will not stop loving us. He will weave all things together for our good, conforming us steadily into the image of Jesus. And one day He will come for us. Why? Because He promised and He never lies!!

LET THE PAST BECOME YOUR FRIEND!

“Careful readers will recognize that what we are really talking about here is thanksgiving. Both Job and David developed the discipline of acknowledging God’s blessing and continually building a reservoir of memories and lessons from which to draw.”

Stephen Viars, Putting Your Past In Its Place, page 52

Picture from my past where my family was sharing about Jesus