There was once this woman, this worldly woman, who lived her life as a prostitute and drug addict. She had given birth to children but that didn’t make her a mother. She had a mother and father who loved her and tried to do the very best for her, but it still didn’t make her a daughter. She had siblings who loved her and would come to her rescue every time she called but that still didn’t make her a sister. She had folk who prayed for her but it didn’t make her a Christian. All she wanted was the streets and that’s all she had. Whenever people saw her around town, they would gossip because they knew she was smart, well-educated and from a very strong family, so they couldn’t understand how she could do all these terrible things to her body and cause all of this hurt to her family. They would pass her by, when she was begging on the streets because they wouldn’t dare help this sinner woman who had all the things she could ever want and then throw them away. They thought that surely God had given up on her which is why she was on the streets. They judged her life she was on display in a shelf. They thought they had it all figured out.
One day her old minister walked by her and she reached out her hand to him. Because she was filthy and unchristian like, he jerked his hand back before she could touch it. He hollered, “Don’t you dare touch me!” She said with tears streaming down her face, “Minister Jones, will you pray for me?” He looked at her with a look of disgrace and said, “Child, we stopped praying for you a long time ago because surely God wouldn’t allow his child to be out in the world like you!” He walked away with her pleas feeling the air, asking for his help and his prayers. She couldn’t understand how a man of God could just walk away without a care for someone who had back slide into the world. She didn’t think God was hearing her prayers so she didn’t pray for herself. She could call her momma and daddy but she was so afraid to let them down once again. So she sat in a dark alley and she cried herself to sleep. While sleeping, she dreamed that she was standing face to face with Jesus. Because she was dirty and hadn’t bathed in days, she tried to run from him because she didn’t want him to see her like that. But he said “You are my sister so there is no need to hide. My father in Heaven has sent me to you because he heard your cry.” She replied “I can’t believe that God has heard my cry, for I am a sinner in the world and because my minister told me that he had given up on me.” Jesus replied, “My father will never forsake his own. In his word he says, it is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed (Deuteronomy 31:8). Do you believe?” She said, “Yes, I believe.” Jesus replied “Then that is all you need.”
She jumped from her dream because she couldn’t believe it. “God really does love me,” she said. She sat alone in that alley for what seemed like days. She knew that she needed to get herself together but she couldn’t go home just yet because her family wouldn’t believe her because she had broken their hearts so many times before. She sat and she sat. She finally gathered the courage to pray for herself. She got on her knees and she locked her fingers before her face and she begin to pray, “Our father in Heaven thank you for loving me. Thank you for keeping me even when I didn’t know who or where I was. God, I thank you for keeping my mind even after all the drugs and alcohol. God, I thank you for never taking your hands off of me when folk walked away. God, I thank you for my family who loved me even when I couldn’t love them back. God, I just need to thank you now. I know that I have fallen so many times but yet you forgive me still. God, I know that you love me and I am praying now for your forgiveness. Please forgive me Father for all of my wrongdoings. God, I don’t want the drugs and this worldly life anymore so I ask that you take the desire from my mouth. God, I don’t know the plan you have for my life but I am ready for it if you would just give me one more chance. I’m ready, now, to be a soldier for you. Show me what you will have me to know. Give me strength Father because I know that this road won’t be easy but I’m ready.” She continued to stay on her knees even after there were no more words coming from her lips because she wanted God to know that she meant every word of her prayer. She didn’t know where she would begin but she knew that this was a new beginning. She eventually got up off her knees and she left that alley and never looked back.
See, I don’t have to tell you the end of the story because if you are a true Christian then you should already know. Aren’t you glad that when God took you in, your past didn’t matter? He doesn’t have to run background and credit checks to accept you into his company. He doesn’t have to take a drug test to see if you’re clean before you start the job because it doesn’t matter. Isaiah 43:18 says “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” So, why are you holding on to past mistakes, bad choices, bad marriages/relationships, anger and hurt? It’s like holding on to a rope that is being pulled. If you don’t eventually let go of it, it might just burn the inside of your hands. Well holding on to the past is the same way. If you continue to let it consume you, it is burning you on the inside. Don’t you know that when you stepped onto God’s side, all of that old stuff didn’t matter anymore? Don’t believe me, read 2nd Corinthians 5:17 which say “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
God doesn’t work like man does. You know how you argue with someone who always bring up stuff you did in the past or it seems like your past crimes are on your back for everyone to see. Well honey, let it go. Just because you were an alcoholic in the past, it doesn’t mean you got vodka in your cup because it could be just water. Just because you use to have a drug habit in the past, it doesn’t mean you’re shooting up now when someone sees a syringe, you could be a diabetic. Just because you use to be a prostitute in the past, it doesn’t mean you sleep with every man you talk too. Stop allowing your past to dictate your future and stop trying to prove to folk that you’ve changed. If they can’t go by your word then show them God’s that says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).”
Yes, you use to be those things and yes, you use to do those things but you don’t anymore. Ephesians 4:22-24 says “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” God has given you your renewal notice. Just like when you go to get your car tags renewed, they give you a sticker with the new year that is supposed to cover the old year. When you place the new one over the old one, it is no longer seen. God is the same way. When he picks you up from that dirty, dusty grave that has been dug for you, he dusts you off and gives you a new mind and spirit. The old one is covered up and no longer visible. Just like the car tag sticker, the new one can’t be peeled off to see the old one because the old one is no longer needed. So get up and stand tall! Display the new you, the one that is no longer covered in dirt and mud but the one that has been made new in God’s likeliness. Leave all of that other stuff behind you and walk on. There isn’t a need to look back because whatever is behind you were left for a reason. Leave it there! Romans 7:6 say “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
Lakisha, the Author 