Changing the Past

This morning I took some time to fix a painting that has been bothering me for months. When I did the original painting I was so focused on painting three snow covered mountains I didn’t really think through the rest of the painting. I did a nice sky, the mountains, and then I had a lovely, empty foreground. The perspective was all off because there was nothing in the foreground to indicate that the mountains were miles and miles away. In fact they looked more like little foothills that were quite close – not the effect I was going for. I have had that painting on my wall for months. I’ve stared at it a millions times. And this morning I finally set out to try and fix it. I added snow-covered pine trees and a snowy path in the foreground. Only the peaks of two of the mountains are still visible, but I learned a great deal from this whole experience.

While I was working on this painting this morning I thought that in a way I was changing the past. Unfortunately when it comes to our past there’s nothing we can do to change it. The good news is that God has made a way for us to be free from the sins of our past, no matter who you are and no matter what you’ve done. In Isaish 1:18 it says, ‘”Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”‘

Will we, like the mountains in my painting, still have visible remnants of our past in our lives? Yes, but as the trees in the painting help put things in proper perspective, so too does the Lord help us keep our lives, past, present, and future, in proper perspective. We’ll know where we’ve been, we’ll know what we’ve done, we’ll know our shortcomings and our faults, and with the help of the Lord we will be able to face the future with certainty knowing that He will never, ever leave us. As Psalm 9:10 says, “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Also, in Jeremiah 29:11, we are assured that the Lord does indeed have plans for us and that they are good – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Through His Son, Yeshua (Jesus), the Lord has made a way for our sins to be washed away. Instead of having the stain of sin on our hands, Yeshua took our penalties for sin onto Himself so that all we have to do is accept what He did on the cross and our sins are then forgiven; not merely covered over, but washed away. If you have a past that could use some cleansing, if your conscious could use some cleaning, if you need a proper perspective on life, click here to learn how you can do that. It’s even easier than fixing a painting!

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google