When you go to apply for a new job, usually they do a background check on you to see what your past looked like. When you apply for a car or house, they do a credit check and perhaps a background check as well. But it is to see your history, not in hopes of you reliving it. 

Unfortunately, many don’t succeed in life, because they are bound by their past. Many wives don’t succeed in marriage because they say, “I learned this from my mother”. But the question is, how was your mother’s marriage? And even if it was good, that doesn’t mean it will work for you. Some men say, “I’m just like my dad”. But how was your dad? Did everyone complain about him? Ask yourself, how was my mother, father, family or those in the area where I grew up? 

Perhaps you should not be imitating any of them. 

The Bible says, 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

You should not live your life bound by your past traditions or your culture. Be willing to change and get better and even be different from the rest of those of your culture. The truth is, our culture is Christ’s culture because we have become like Him. So our aim and focus have to be, to become more like Him and less like our old self and old culture. 

From now on, do not be bound by the past, but instead, let God give you a new future. 

May the God of the Bible bless you

Bishop Bira Fonseca