There are times in our lives when we worry about our past. A past circumstance, a past sin, a past accident, a past regret, a past mistake, a past careless comment. Maybe a past that someone else did, but it bothers you.
God knows all about the past, and knows all about your past. He’s not alarmed by it. You can trust Him with the past. All of the past. Your past, the past of the people you love, the past circumstances.
The Bible is full of stories of the lives of people who had troubled past.
One of these is in Judges Chapter 11, about a man named Jephthah. We only know a little about Jephthah. He was the son of a prostitute. It sounds like his dad raised him. But then his brothers kicked him out of the house, afraid that he might get some of his dad’s inheritance. Jephthah ran away, and eventually came to live with a group of men who were ‘vain’, one translation says ‘a gang of scoundrels’. Not an ideal past, and not ideal circumstances!
Jephthah had some good characteristics – just like each of us. The Bible says he was a ‘mighty man of valour’, also known as a might warrior. So in the course of time, the country of Jephthah’s brothers was attacked by enemies. The brothers who had thrown him out of the house now came to Jephthah and asked him to rescue them from the enemies. Jephthah did, and became the leader, or judge, of the country.
People may see us as just our circumstances. But we are not our circumstances. God knows who we are.
“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” – Jeremiah 31:3