Your Past Does Not Determine Your Future

Read Mark 3:31-35. Throughout this week we have reflected on the impact our family have on the way we think and act in the present. But our family’s past does not decide our future. God does!

When we place our faith in Christ and his work on the cross, we are spiritually reborn by the Holy Spirit into the family of Jesus. God adopts us. We are a new creation reborn into a new family. We are now in a new relationship with God our Father. This is the profound truth Jesus was pointing to when he looked at those seated in the circle around him in Mark 3 and declared: “Here are my true family members” (Mark 3:34b TPT). The church, our fellow Christians, now becomes our “first family” – the place where we learn new patterns of thinking and new ways of behaving.

Being a Jesus follower is about putting off the sinful patterns of our past – usually passed down to us by our families – and being transformed into new creations and learning to live as members of Christ’s family.

The church is the place where slowly but surely, we are “re-parented” on doing life in Christ’s way. It’s where we learn that success means being faithful to God’s purposes for us. It’s where we learn to seek God and his righteousness first. It’s where God declares we are loved and that we are good enough in Christ. God intends the church to be a family where we are set free.

We honour our parents. We love our family. But, as Jesus’ followers, we learn to obey God.

THINK IT OVER

Think about the following:

• What was considered “success” in your family?

This daily devotional draws widely on the book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero, published in 2006 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.