God Can Bring Good From Your Past

August 21, 2024

Do you want God to use your past for good? Then you have to embrace the experiences of your life—the good ones, the bad ones, the ones you may feel ashamed of—and stop running from your past.

Galatians 3:4 says, “Were all your experiences wasted? I hope not!” (NCV).

Don’t run away from your past! The past can be painful, but running away from it just wastes the pain. Nothing good can come out of hiding or ignoring or denying your past.

God can use every experience in your life for good, but you’ve got to stop running from them. Instead, you must allow God into your past to heal it, then He will use it for good.

Maybe your parents weren’t very loving, maybe you weren’t that great in school, maybe you weren’t the football captain or the prom queen. Maybe you have major regrets. But, these experiences (the good, bad and the ugly) happened. Own them.

Stop pushing the bad experiences out of your mind. Deuteronomy 11:2 says, “Remember today what you have learned about the LORD through your experiences with him” (GNT).

In other words, remember the lessons your experiences have taught you. How do you do that? The best way to remember the lessons and experiences of your life is to keep a journal. I’m not talking about a diary. A diary is a daily list of what you did: “Today I went to the store and bought milk.” With a journal, you don’t necessarily write in it every day. But every time you have an important lesson, you write it down so you won’t forget it: “That was painful. I learned that the hard way. I don’t want to forget that.”

To remember what you’ve learned about God, keep a journal. Then you can look back and remember what God taught you. In the dark times of your life, you can be encouraged and know that God is still working for your good.

What experience from your past do you need to embrace so God can start using it for good?

I encourage you to let God into that past experience. Allow him to heal you and love you. Be honest with him, and he can use anything for good.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”