I want you to understand that who you are today is because of the choices you’ve made in response to the events of your past. Too often, a bad experience from your past can skew the truth of your present, which in turn, will skew your view of present reality and future decisions. It is important, therefore, to examine your beliefs and paradigms of today and how your past has shaped them. If you do not evaluate your past experiences and how they are influencing your present, then you could be missing amazing opportunities for your future.

Christians talk about Jesus’ blood covering their past sins, but I don’t know if the Christian himself has allowed his sin to be covered by Jesus’ blood in his own mind. Too often, I see Christians held captive by the sins of their past instead of living in the freedom that Christ offers. When I say, “Held captive,” what I mean is that they’re held captive mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We allow our failures and our hurts to box and cage ourselves into our own prison, when God has already opened the door. All that we have to do is step through it into His grace. How prideful and arrogant are we to live our lives as if God’s grace isn’t good enough for us? That somehow, we have to be good enough for Jesus Christ.

I want you to think back over the events of your past. Find that one event that really makes you cringe and wish that you never went through that experience. How do you feel about it now? Have you learned anything new? Has it kept you from making better decisions, or allowed you to make wiser decisions?

I want to consider the narrative of Joseph in Genesis 39. It does not appear to me that Joseph allowed his past experiences to dictate his attitude towards his life and influence his actions. I would venture to say this because even in prison, “…The Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed” (Genesis 39:21-23).

After reflecting on this, I feel so convicted because too often when my circumstances change for the worse my attitude and actions usually follow suite. I then make an interpretation of what my experience was and allow that experience to influence my perception and decision for future situations of similarity. However, Joseph didn’t allow being put in prison falsely to influence his commitment to helping people and working in the skill that God had given him. How would you have responded if someone sued you falsely and put you in prison? How would you have responded, or would you have reacted to your circumstance?

Now, I want you to remember the event I asked you to find in your past that made you cringe. What have you learned now that we’ve examined Joseph’s story in Genesis as you think about your past? How will you commit to changing your attitude and actions in the future? How have past experiences and relationships hindered you from living a fulfilled, grace covered, and free life in Christ?

The point is that I don’t want you to live like a victim to your present circumstances, because you’re not. You have a choice to react or respond to your circumstances. Reacting to your circumstances is based in the prideful desire to control people or circumstances. Whereas if you respond, you’re taking responsibility to do what you can to improve the situation.

I’ll give you a for instance of the two sides of the coin in how to react or respond. What if instead of complaining to your peers at work, you accepted the project that you didn’t want to take on and made it the best that you possibly could? What if instead of dreading the person no one else wants to work with, you looked forward to influencing them in a positive way? What if you took the responsibility and decided to change your attitude, instead of trying to change your circumstances? How can you expect to be given greater responsibilities in life if you can’t even handle life with the little things that overwhelm and cause your moods and actions to sway? If you’re only giving your employer 50% of your productivity now, how will you give 100% in a higher position in the company or at a different company? What makes you think that if you went to a different company, people would treat you better there?

If you can’t be faithful in the little things, how will you be faithful with greater things? Greater things will only magnify what is already inside of you.

You see, you’re missing the opportunity right NOW. Remember your past experience, did you run from your problem in the past, learn to avoid similar situations, or did you grow from it? Stop trying to run from your problems. Joseph didn’t run from his problem and he didn’t allow his circumstance of being in prison to determine his commitment to give his best work and attitude. The interesting thing is that this prepared him for the ultimate responsibility of his life, saving the land of Egypt and his family from the coming famine. God can use your present circumstance to prepare you for the greater things that He has for you.

Understand that everything you go through can be used by God to prepare you for greater things if only you respond correctly and operate within God’s grace. Look at your life from God’s perspective, not yours.

Actions items:

1. Make a list of the experiences you’ve had in life, that once you went through it, you were changed and life was not the same. These are the big turning points in life in which once you went through it, you could not go back.
2. Write whether the initial experience was negative or positive
3. Write whether the initial experience has changed since time has past, do you have a negative or positive outlook on it now?
4. On all of your negative and positive events, how has God’s hand been at work, trying to bring you to experience His love and discover what He has for you? Is there a particular theme God has woven into your life story thus far?