Galatians 5:1
It was for freedom that Christ set us free
How does God intend for you to resolve hurtful, controlling past experiences? In two ways which we shall consider today and tomorrow.
First, you have the privilege of evaluating your past experience in the light of who you are now, as opposed to who you were then. The intensity of the primary emotion was established by how you perceived the event at the time it happened. Remember: Your emotions are a product of how you perceived the event, not the event itself. As a Christian, you are not primarily a product of your past; you are primarily the product of the work of Christ on the cross. The flesh, which represents how you processed those events according to the world and without Christ, remains. But you are able to render it inoperative.
When a present event activates that primary emotion, many people believe what they feel instead of believing what is true. For example, people who have been verbally abused by their parents have a hard time believing they are unconditionally loved by Father God. Their primary emotions argue that they are unlovable to a parent figure. They believe what they feel and their walk is off course. Believing the truth and walking by
faith is what sets us free.
Now that you are in Christ, you can look at those events from the perspective of who you are today. Christ is in your life right now desiring to set you free from your past. That is the gospel, the good news that Christ has come to set the captives free. Perceiving those events from the perspective of your new identity in Christ is what starts the process of healing those damaged emotions.
God’s good news about our identity is revealed in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” This is what you must believe first in order to be set free from your past.
Prayer: Loving Lord, thank You for making me a new creation in Christ. Help me walk away from anything in my past that is restricting my freedom.
Unlock the Mysteries
Some of the survivors of abuse I have met believe that because “we are a new creation” that healing isn’t important. It’s as though being a “new creation” wiped away everything that happened so I can forget about it. There are many misnomers about being a new creation. I’ve found that in some it’s an “escape” from facing the pain.
Hi Sue, I’m sorry I did not get to this sooner. 🙂
Yes I can see that as well. That is unrealistic and unbiblical. Jesus said come to me and I will give you peace, He did not say I will remove all of your problems. Jesus also said He is the way the truth and the life, that belief in Him brings eternal life. People miss or ignore the other quantifiers of this; Paul said to “work out your salvation”, this could mean to work out past hurts, we are a “work in progress”, Christ will finish what He started when He returns etc. With all the info in the Bible, even Paul’s words alone it is impossible to think “new creation” means all the old pain and problems are gone. Christ came not to take away all the pain and problems but to show us how to work through them and solve them realizing that He will help us and that His love is always there for us. As Christ suffered for us, it is unrealistic to think that we will walk with Him unscathed, and it is as well a little too much to ask for IMO. He died for us, was that not enough? We need to contribute a little as well, He saves us – we can do nothing in that regard but we need to do our part nonetheless.
Reblogged this on A Conservative Christian Man.
Thanks Paul, appreciate all the reblogs. God bless you. 🙂
May He continue to bless you as well!
🙂