You don’t have to allow your past to define who you are today. Past hurts from people you loved or people you didn’t even know can leave a deep wound upon your heart that you may feel can never heal. But I am here to tell you it can and it will if you open yourself to the healing process of God’s love.
Most people I know have suffered some sort of pain, loss, or brokeness that have left them in a place of deadness. It is easy to just stay in a place of mourning than to seek healing and work towards moving past that place. It takes effort and work and sometimes reliving the very thing that caused so much hurt.
For me it wasn’t a good feeling to have to go back over my life and examine the things that had happened to me by others and also realize that some of those things I caused myself. But if I wanted to become everything that God wanted me to be I had to go back and bury the feelings, bury my past hurts. At first I had to acknowledge the pain and the cause. Then I had to forgive the person(s) and then myself. Sometimes I experienced as much pain as I did when it first occurred, that was the hard part. Some things were burned into me so deep that I had forgotten that it even happened to me. My mind had placed it in a box so tightly closed that I was afraid to even open the memory.
Through it all God was there to help me sort through the toughest parts and together we buried each one. Today, I have overcome! I don’t have to worry about those things coming back to hurt me again. I learned from my own mistakes and I can truly say that I am a new person. My life changed because of the greatest love that I ever known – God!
I want to encourage you today that you do not have to be defined by your past any longer. I don’t care what it was that happened or what parts you may have played in your own past mistakes. I am here to share with you and encourage you that no matter where you are in life things can change. You don’t have to be in the church building, you don’t have to know all the scriptures in the Bible, you just need to ask God to enter into your life and take control. It’s not easy! I will be the first to tell you that your life is not instantly going to be wonderful, but what I can say is that God can turn your ashes into beauty. He can exchange your tears for His joy. He will help you bury those terrible things in your life that have caused you so much pain. I have overcome of my past!
The Butterfly Journey – Lisa
