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Bible Question: I've been a Christian for years. Recently, I was very close to God but now I seem to be caught up with so many problems from the past and God seems so far away. How can I get away from the past and move on with God?
Bible Answer: From your question, I have assumed it is a past with a significant problem(s) or maybe sin(s). In order to answer your question, we will start with the Apostle Paul.
The Worst of All. Paul the apostle had a very difficult past. He had persecuted Christians because they believed in Jesus. He had sent men and women to prison and he put some to death. He was rejecting Jesus. Here are Paul's own words,
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I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. (NASB) Acts 22:3-5 |
How did Paul deal with his past? First, He considered himself a serious sinner.
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It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. (NASB) 1 Timothy 1:15 |
I would have been in anguish over my past if I had been Paul. I would have been in pain and been mourning my sin. Some sorrow is good, but not prolonged sorrow.
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I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance . . . (NASB) 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 |
How did Paul respond to his past? The answer is found in Philippians,
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Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (NASB) Philippians 3:13-14 |
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