If you keep crying and grieving over your past, you'll miss your future

 

Yesterday was a momentous occasion. My pastor, Elder Carol Elyzabeth Harris, officially became my pastor yesterday. She was installed and honored by prelates and great dignitaries in the Kingdom of God under United Covenant Churches of Christ. The homolist for the installation service, Bishop James Chambers, made several comparison statements regarding our pasts and our futures. His message was brief yet powerful and has the ability to alter the remaining course of our lives ... if we let it.

Sometimes, we are our own worse enemies. There are some issues that we face that are spiritual. Ephesians 6:12 states "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Some things that we battle are generational. Generational curses are real, and so too are the patterns and pathology that we build and replicate for our children and our children's children to repeat. Success in overcoming these issues and winning these battles is contingent upon our ability to 1) identify which type of issue we're dealing with and 2) be strategic in developing a plan of attack. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the plan must be activated and put into place. Faith without works is dead! James 2:26

The devil is afraid of our future and where God is trying to take us. He views us as threats to his imps and his kingdom. He does know our past, and every chance he gets, he brings it back to our remembrance - the things we've done, the people who have hurt us, the many times we've been rejected, abandoned, left alone. These remembrances can be so strong that they trigger the same emotional and even physical response that we endured when we first went through the experience. These triggers or flashbacks can cause us to react inappropriately to the wrong people, people who had nothing to do with the incidents of the past. They can cause us to lash out at people we love. They can cause us to isolate ourselves, further feeding the feelings of rejection, abandonment and loneliness. They can cause us to stay stuck in the past.

In yesterday's homily, Bishop Chambers said "If you keep crying and grieving over your past, you'll miss your future." That resonated with me, because for years, I stayed stuck and fixated on things that had happened to me, promises that had been made to me, lies that had been told about me, secrets that had been revealed about me. I was stuck! And think about what it looks like when a vehicle is stuck in snow or mud. The tires are spinning fiercely, snow, grass and mud are being thrown wildly. Movement is happening, but progression is not! You just end up dirty and out of gas. 

Holding on to all that hurt and anger and bitterness and disappointment from the past is just like you spinning your tires. You're dirty, exhausted and out of gas at the end of the day, but you've made no progress. Let it go! Give it over to God. Cast your cares on Jesus, for he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7)! The burdens that we carry become too much for us to bear. Carrying all that extra weight around makes you see things in a distorted way. People aren't really rejecting you - you've been rejected in the past and it looks slightly familiar (because the devil is tricking you to make it look like the same thing), so you lash out or retreat, just as you did in the past. Dare to do something different - dare to give up the memories and move to imagination. 

The following nuggets of wisdom came from Bishop Chambers' message yesterday:

• If you keep crying and grieving over your past, you'll miss your future. 
• Memory is not a place to rest in, but a place for you to be creative and thrust you forward. 
• People who live in memory don't move. People who live in yesterday don't walk toward tomorrow.
• We MUST move from memory to imagination!

This is a call to walk by faith (imagination) and not by sight (memory / what we've already seen). Your miracle, your destiny, your deliverance is not in your past, it's in your future. Go forth! 

 

Sharon C.

1/19/14

Happy Birthday to two important people in my life, my two cousins...

Pastor Joniqua Cooper Combs (Jan 18) 

Gerene Burton Briddell (Jan 19) 
And Happy Installation to my Pastor Carol Harris (1/18/14)