Face it, we all have a past but if you have been forgiven by God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, it is forgiven. As a Preacher of the Gospel of the Grace of God, I see a lot of God's people still condemning themselves for something that was over twenty years ago!! There are people that will not let you live things down, you feel their thoughts toward you when you meet them in the isle at the grocery store. They smile, you know it's phony because you know they are phony but they know your old sin list so you have to act as phony as they are acting. This type behavior creates a cycle of condemnation in your life about every little microscopic mistake you make regardless of how minuscule. Listen up class, when the Holy Spirit reveals sin or error in your life it is very clear and to the point. God is not a vague God, His Word is clear and the Holy Spirt can get the point across without you condemning yourself everyday of your life. When you condemn yourself you are no use to the Kingdom of God because personal condemnation strips you of all your confidence!!! "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" (Philippians 1:6 KJV) God is working in our lives and He wants you to grow in confidence until the day Jesus comes for us. Until Jesus comes He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." (John 16:13 KJV) The Holy Spirit will guide you into truth, He will not play guessing games with you during your earth journey. Someone said they saw a bumper sticker that read "God is back and He is mad", but God hasn't been anywhere and He's not mad!
If you will quit condemning yourself, walk in the confidence of God then your spirit of confidence will cause the self appointed judges of humanity to run from you because the power of your confidence will always intimidate the person that feeds off your misery. Yes I'm aware that they will still talk about you from a distance but you won't have to play the phony happy dance when you see them, they will go the other way because they are convicted by the Holy Spirit. There is only so much you can do to fix your past and the rest you will just have to give it to God and get over it before you pass this lack of confidence down to your children. Stop the madness in your mind by reading the Word and asking God to transform you "by the renewing of your mind."(Romans 12:2) Ask God to help you walk, think and talk in the power of the Holy Ghost because He's the one that lives in you not one of the local haters!! As they say, " Birds fly, fish swim and haters hate" but please quit hating on yourself because there are plenty others to do that for you!!
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1 KJV)
I Believe,
Scott L. Boatner