Stop Giving Your Past Permission To Speak

Jer 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” NIV

God has a plan for your life. And that plan is to prosper not harm; to give hope and a future. What an awesome plan!!! God’s Word teaches us that He loves us and wants the best for us. God is ever present and always watchful. He does not consult your past to justify his blessings on your future.

It is difficult to look towards our future when we are constantly allowing our past to speak. Maybe mistakes have been made in the past. Failure is not final, but it can be used as fertilizer to help us grow. We must take the adversities of this life and allow them to become stepping stones into our future. No one has ever become great overnight.

There are many celebrities who have overcome obstacles in their past and pushed forward into their future. James Earl Jones overcame a stuttering problem as a child, now we have the pleasure of hearing him speak in a deep baritone voice. Halle Berry, well known actress was diagnosed with diabetes and fell into a diabetic coma 7 years ago. Michael Jordan, cut from his high school basket ball team, later to become one of the greatest NBA players. These celebrities did not allow their past to speak into their future. They continued moving towards the future that was ahead of them becoming men and women we all know and love.

Zig Zigler said: “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful”. Successful people do not allow the past to tell them what can or cannot be done. Today, make a non-negotiable decision you will not allow your past to speak into your future. The first thing we must do is change our mind. The bible says be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. You are what you think! Some of us have given up on our dreams because of what others have said. We have to encourage ourselves with the knowledge that God has a good plan for our lives and even if we don’t understand the plan we can trust it.

We must be prayerfully persistent. Or as I like to say, we must watch and pray. Maybe we got off on the wrong road or made an wrong turn, or possibly headed down a one way street, it’s okay if we have to make a U-Turn or change directions. The point is it is God who will lead and guide us. A man’s heart devises’ his ways but the Lord orders his steps. It’s time to re-position yourself. Expect something great out of life today. Don’t get comfortable with compromise. The only person that can stop you from becoming all you were destined to be is YOU…. God Loves You and so do I….. Pastor Tammy

Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business
“Letting go of the past and reaching forward to the future.”

If you’re like most people, you like being in control. You want things to happen according to your wishes and according to your timetable. But sometimes, God has other plans, and He always has the final word.

The enemy loves to use things of our past to stop us from reaching our future. Maybe you have done some things you are not proud of. Maybe some things happened to you that were outside of your control and left you emotionally incapacitated. You find it hard to love others. Maybe you don’t trust others and feel that people have a hidden agenda when trying to get close to you.

Perhaps someone you truly loved someone who, told you they loved you only to betray your love and confidence in them. Maybe it was a marital relationship and your spouse committed adultery. Now you find it hard to love or even trust again. Growing up as a child did you suffer abuse as a child only to grow into adulthood and promise that no one would ever hurt you in that way again?

If any of these things sound familiar you have unfinished business in your life and you need closure. The word of God tells us to forget the former things and do not dwell on the past. God does not want us looking at the past because he has such a wonderful plan for our future. The past is past and there is nothing that we can do about it. We cannot change it. The enemy would desire that we keep living in the past. But God always gives us a glimpse of our future. He said behold, I am doing a new thing, Shall it not spring forth.

Never underestimate the importance of closure. Through out our life, we have so many opportunities for closure and new beginnings. When we refuse to let go of the past we have unfinished business. We can’t have a fresh start without an end first. Life teaches us that we cannot experience a fresh start until we deal with the closure preceding it.

Many people minimize the importance and impact that real closure can bring. People talk about forgetting the past and getting on with their life. Closure is a mental physical and emotional process. If you are unable to trust, love or commit yourself, you need closure.

Some people have a whole string of broken relationships, because they underestimate the impact of closure. They never learned how to make a new beginning really work. It’s time to take care of any unfinished business so that you can move on with your life. We can remain angry and upset with people, which perpetuates the cycle of pain and heartache. Forgive others and forgive yourself. We must grow up spiritually to a place of surrender and rest in God. Come to terms with life and realize, it’s not my will but THY WILL be done. And handle your business!!! God Loves You and so do I…Pastor Tammy

Love not the World

Love Not the World

Worldliness is not so much a matter of activity as of attitude. It is possible for a Christian to stay away from questionable pleasure and doubtful places and still love the world, for worldliness is a matter of the heart. To the extent that a Christian loves the world system and the things in it, he does not love the Father.

Worldliness not only affects your response to the love of God; it also affects your response to the will of God. “The world passeth away but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:17). Doing the will of God is a joy for those living in the love of God. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” But when a believer loses his enjoyment of the Father’s love, he finds it hard to obey the Father’s will.

When you put these two factors together, you have a practical definition of worldliness: anything in a Christian’s life that causes him to lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love or his desire to do the Father’s will is worldly and must be avoided. Responding to the Father’s love (your personal devotional life), and doing the Father’s will (your daily conduct)—these are two tests of worldliness.

Many things in this world are definitely wrong and God’s Word identifies them as sins. It is wrong to steal and to lie. Sexual sins are wrong. About these and many other actions, Christians can have little or no debate. But there are areas of Christian conduct that are not so clear, in which even the best Christians disagree. In such cases, each believer must apply the test to his own life and be scrupulously honest in his self-examination, remembering that even a good thing may rob a believer of his enjoyment of God’s love and his desire to do God’s will.

The world has three systems it uses to trap us: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The flesh” does not mean “the body.” Rather, it refers to the basic nature of unregenerate man that makes him blind to spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14). Flesh is the nature we receive in our physical birth; spirit is the nature we receive in the second birth. A Christian has both the old nature (flesh) and the new nature (Spirit) in his life. And what a battle these two natures can wage! (Gal. 5:17–23)

God has given man certain desires, and these desires are good. Hunger, thirst, weariness, and sex are not at all evil in themselves. There is nothing wrong about eating, drinking, sleeping, or begetting children. But when the flesh nature controls them, they become sinful “lusts.” It is important to note that no Christian becomes worldly all of a sudden. Worldliness creeps up on a believer; it is a gradual process. The world is passing away and we must be careful not to be conformed to this world lest we find ourselves being condemned along with this world. But he who does the will of the Father will abide forever. Remember my brothers and sisters we are “in” the world, but not “of” the world. Guard your heart for out of it flow the issues of life. God loves you and so do I…Pastor Tammy