Are You Worried that Your Past Might Cancel Your Future?

Are You Worried that Your Past Might Cancel Your Future?

Posted on by Michele Morin

John Newton is best known for his well-loved hymn, Amazing Grace. He was also a vocal opponent of England’s slave trade, but those closest to him in his youth knew him as a foul-mouthed, hard-living reprobate who made his living as a slave ship captain.

Early in Newton’s Christian life, his reputation would have followed him, and a rough past can be hard to overcome in any era of history. However, I wonder if John Newton was helped by the biblical record of Paul’s rough start in ministry.

Paul’s moment of clarity on the Damascus Road had transformed him from a Christian killer to a Christ follower–but try telling that to the locals who knew his reputation and lived in fear of his zeal to eliminate the early church! When he returned to Jerusalem, he received a warning directly from God:

“Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me. . .Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

(Acts 22:18, 21)

Coupled with the warning was a confirmation of Paul’s unique calling, for he was sent far away FROM the people who had known him as Saul, but he was being sent TO a people group and a culture that would not have heard the gospel in any other way. Paul’s unique conversion led to a unique ministry as Apostle to the Gentiles.

Similarly, John Newton’s ugly beginnings made him uniquely qualified to support England’s abolitionist movement and write about Amazing Grace—the only explanation for his radical turnaround!

Is there something in your unique story that seems to stand in the way of people accepting your testimony?

Do you ever feel as if your past cancels out your present—and jeopardizes your future?

Let the example of these two godly men reassure you that God has a custom-made calling for you as well.

The past you wish you could hide from the world may be the very thing God will use to qualify you for serving the world he loves.

And Now, Let’s Talk Books…

Eugene Peterson opens Paul’s very first epistle and follows Paul’s freedom trail on the journey away from guilt and dread and toward hope for deliverance. Traveling Light is a work of practical theology in which Peterson exercises his unique gift for proving that every single word of the Bible is liveable.

He begins by reminding us how unfree 21st-century believers tend to become in our “huddled, worried, defensive lives.” Paul’s writing makes it clear that we are free only to the extent that we acknowledge our connection to the gospel as “made, raised, and rescued” people.

Written in 1982 and re-released this year with questions for reflection and discussion, Peterson was speaking into a time of political division and cultural change—and, obviously, the church is still in need of his clear-eyed discrimination for cobbling together a way of life that is both compelling to observers and sustainable for believers. Because he was widely read, Peterson drew on wisdom from rich and varied sources in making his point, and wise readers will mine the footnotes for further encouragement in the free life.

Because we live and work according to our concept of God, our theology is foundational to our freedom. We might prefer a neat formula to follow, but Paul’s life was anything but formulaic. His story of a great reversal followed by relentless overflow into the lives of people frees us today to lean into whatever narrative God has cast us for, to resist the small-minded, short-sighted critics with their rule books, and to commit ourselves to following the living Christ “into the country of freedom.”

Holding You in the Light,

Paul’s writing makes it clear that Christians are free only to the extent that we acknowledge our connection to the gospel as “made, raised, and rescued” people. #TravelingLight by #EugenePeterson via @ivpress

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You’ll receive a welcome letter to confirm your subscription and monthly encouragement in your email inbox.

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Many thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

Photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four married sons and a growing fleet of adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

18 thoughts on “Are You Worried that Your Past Might Cancel Your Future?”

  1. Such a great reminder, Michele. I know God has used our pasts to give my husband and me a passion to help other couple have the marriage God has for them. May each person reading see how God has uniquely gifted them through His Spirit and their story.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. You’ve got me thinking, Michelle. There are some things in my past I wonder if I could be sharing to inspire women (particularly young adults and divorced women) that God’s grace is enough. Prayerfully considering this…!

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  3. If someone had told me during my growing up years that I’d marry a pastor and serve beside him for 40 years, I never would have believed them. My life wasn’t quite a mess, but it certainly was rumpled! How could I be a minister’s wife?! When I fell in love with my husband-to-be, he was headed to seminary. My thought was, “He’ll surely become a professor. I can handle that!” But God miraculously placed us in a church (That’s another story!), thus beginning four decades of ministry. Slowly but surely God grew me into the role. I’m so thankful for the opportunities he gave me to mature in my faith–the teaching and mentoring I received along the way, the challenging experiences that pressed me closer to him, and the euphoric moments when I felt his Spirit working through me. Was it Patsy Clairmont that used to say, “God can use cracked pots?” I believe she is right.

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    1. And that’s the only kind of pot available, right? I have similar thoughts about the blessing of marriage and motherhood. I could have been voted “least likely to settle down” in my early twenties. God is full of surprises!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Michele: I have done some things in my past that I am not proud of. However, as I began to know God in a more intimate way, I have given them to Him and asked Him to forgive me.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. I was just reading in 1 John recently and remembering how the “beloved disciple” did and said some foolish things in the gospels. It’s so nice to know Bible people were just as human as we are. What a testimony to God’s grace that He can transform any of us and work through us to show people Himself.

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  8. Michele, I used to feel as if my past cancels out my present—and jeopardizes my future. But now I don’t, it took a long time for me to not feel like that and accept it. Because you know, the old is gone, and the new is here.
    Visiting today from Joanne’s

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