Coming To Grips With Who You Were...

One of the best ways for the enemy to tries to discourage you is to remind you of your past. He will do this in a number of ways on any given day. He will use "things", like possibly scars from your past to remind you. He will use temptations from your past to remind you. And one of his personal favorites is how he will use people to remind you of who you used to be. The reason this is one of his favorite tactics is because it not only can bring you down, but he is also at work in the person who is condemning you. And if he can be effective in that method, he can hold 2 people back from where God wants them to be. We must always realize the it IS God's ultimate desire for us to be broken loose of, and set free from, our past. No matter how small or large your mistakes are, God does not want you to dwell on them or live in them day after day. As I have stated in the past, sometime what we are forced to live with are the consequences of  our past, but that is different then living defeated by our past. For example, a person may go to prison for something they did, but that does not mean they can't have a conversion while in the prison. Does it mean they will be set free from prison when they give their life to Jesus, no. But it does mean they don't have to live out the rest of their days being the person that got them there. They have a choice....we all have a choice. Even if we are forced to live with consequences of our past, we can still choose to walk out of it and into where Jesus wants us to be. Leaving the things behind that earned us those consequences and living in God's beautiful grace and mercy is one of the most freeing things we can ever do.
The reason it is important to "come to grips with who you were" is so you can see the changes you have made. If we deny who we were just because we don't want to face it, then it will be very difficult for us to see how far we have come. A person that Jesus rescues from a drug addicted past doesn't mind giving their testimony about their addiction days. They want to tell people how they have been set free. However, a person who is still living in it, struggling with it and can't quite get out of it, will have a hard time carrying on a conversation with you about how bad was. They more than likely will be in denial of the problem because they are still in it. But when you walk out of that problem, you can look back and see just how bad it was. And most important, you can see how much God has done for you. That is why your testimony is so important. However, be very careful that when something from your past, or someone from your past, rears it's ugly head, DON'T get sucked into attitude of defensiveness. If you have truly repented that past and are living out a changed life, then just defeat the enemy by saying..."yes, that unfortunately is who I used to be, or how I used to be. But because of the love, forgiveness, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, my past has been washed clean and I no longer have to live in condemnation from it.". Believe it or not, those are some of the most powerful words you will ever say outside of "God, please forgive me and allow me to receive the gift of Jesus Christ into my heart and life and change my life".
When someone attacks your old character just stand firm with Christ and know that is not who you are now. Let that person say what they want about that old you, he/she is dead and gone anyway. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tell us "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Your job, your responsibility and your part of the commitment with Jesus is to daily die to your flesh, pick up your cross, follow Him and make sure the OLD YOU stays dead and gone! Let the new you, your character through Christ, your heart through Christ and your new actions through Christ speak for itself and don't give the past the attention that enemy wants you to. Through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, it is dead and gone. Leave it there!
God, Thank You that Jesus lived, died and rose again to set me free! Remind me that I am free from my past when the enemy tries to bring it back up. Let the person You are making me into bring glory and honor to Your name. And may the accuser, no matter what form he shows up in, see that he can have my past...because my future belongs to You. In Jesus name, Amen.