Looking at our past can help us move forward
You may or may not experience this, but I find this common in my life. I keep doing the same things over and over again…EXPECTING different results that never come! I had to learn to objectively look at my past for understanding and closure. This helps me to stop repeating the same actions and behaviors that bring me frustration. Pastor Allan is teaching an exciting series at our church. He also suggested that we need to look at our past to learn and heal.
Pastor Allan shared 4 key points about our human nature. The first is that we are all wounded in some way or fashion. This means that we are carrying a burden or a hurt around with us from our past that we can’t seem to let go of and it influences our actions, thoughts, and behaviors. In short, our perception of our past influences who we are today and how we interact with others. Think about this for a moment, we allow moments from our past to shape our future! I like to share that we don’t need to turn a bad moment into a bad day, but there are moments from our past that still influence us negatively to this very day.
Pastor Allan’s next key point is that all wounds are connected to lies. I used to cling to my perceived false fact that I was a loser who could never amount to anything. Belief in this lie and others that stemmed from it took me to some dark and scary places and caused me to make some poor choices. Not even the consequences of these choices could get my attention long enough to help me to look at my negative behaviors and actions and question the motivation behind them. My friend Brian C. taught me that I cannot fix the head I got with the head I got. Believing these lies shaped my future and had me on a path of destruction.
How is your head today? Are there a few false truths in your head from the past that you cling to? Are you relying on the head you got to fix the head you got? There is a solution I promise!
Pastor Allan shared a solution. All lies need freedom. If we don’t get free from the lies, they will continue to embrace our thoughts and influence our actions and behaviors. Until we free ourselves from the lies, they will control our entire lives. Those of you who know me are aware of my struggles with alcoholism and addiction. Through the grace of God and AA I have been clean and sober almost 19 years now. When I took them up on their offer and allowed the wonderful staff at the Salvation Army in Sacramento to love me until I could love myself back in 1991 and 1992, I began to experience God’s grace and could finally look at and deal with the lies that I had allowed to influence and control my life so negatively. Lies are all around us. There are the lies of addiction that once embraced me that I am know free from, based on my participation in a daily maintenance program of my spiritual condition. (Big Book page 85) There are lies that are still holding me down. My friends and family are watching me struggle to control my weight issues, but I am making ground and winning this one finally! There are also some lies that I am not even aware of…yet, but my picket fence of friends helps me to get outside of my own head and look at my actions and behaviors.
Pastor Allan’s 4th and last point of this talk suggests and my life is a good verification of this that all freedom comes from Christ. I need God in my life. God brought me to the Salvation Army to heal and He showed me that AA’s spiritual principles and Steps could help me walk across the bridge of faith to rediscover freedom through Him.
Friends, I need you to ask yourself, Are you free from the lies of your past? Please check your own experience with this. I thank God daily for my freedom!
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
"We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. 'Do I now
believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power
greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe,
or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on
his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this
simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be
built." Alcoholics Anonymous, We Agnostics, pg. 47
believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power
greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe,
or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on
his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this
simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be
built." Alcoholics Anonymous, We Agnostics, pg. 47
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