All of us have a past, and we have a present, and a future. Some people are stuck in the past, some people can only think about here and now, while others are putting everything off til the future. What do you do when your past is consuming both your present and your future?
In the Bible we see King Saul, who made mistakes, he lied, he disobeyed God, he spent most of his life trying to make up for it. The Bible says that a tormenting spirit came and made him miserable. This is what happens when our past comes knocking on our doorstep, and won't go away. The consequences of our past does us less harm than the guilt that it brings. It is a terrible thing to live in constant fear that the past will repeat itself. Some people fear that they will never get out of it's clutches. One thing is for certain, no one cheats God, whatever you dish out, is coming right back at you.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he
also reap. Galatians 6:7
To understand how this works, look at your life like as if it were a garden. First you get the ground ready. Second you plant the seeds. Third you tend to the plants and harvest the fruit. By the time you are in the harvesting period, the ground preparation and the planting were in the PAST. If you did not do a good job cultivating the ground, or if you planted the wrong kind of seed, you are not going to get the harvest that you wanted to get.
Bad 'seeds' (actions) produce bad fruit. Good 'seeds' (actions) produce good fruit.
If you plant 'bad' seeds, are you going to get a 'good' harvest? No, you are going to get a 'bad' harvest. If you do plant bad seeds and get a bad harvest what can you do to get a 'good' harvest the next time? Well, you have to start all over at square one, cultivating the ground. You have to dig up all the bad plants, work the soil, and prepare it for the good seed.
Before you ever get a harvest of good things there is a lot of WORK that has to be done. Those who want to reap a good harvest before they do any work, is not going to see a good harvest. You must work hard preparing yourself, and planting the right seeds for a long time before you see good fruit come back to you. Anyone who is more interested in playing, rather than working is not going to find a prosperous harvest in the end. If you 'play around today' you will find that in the future the consequences of that choice often eliminates you from producing the best harvest that you can produce. Even if your interest is a sports, you have to work hard on your skills to advance. Anyone that plants good seeds for a short time, but then gives up because they do not see results from it as quickly as they would like, will not receive a good harvest. You must do good, and continue to do good, until a good harvest comes back to you.
What do you do if your past comes back to haunt you? You can learn a lesson from your past. Don't make the same mistakes all over again. As long as you keep making the same mistakes over and over again, you will continue to produce the same lousy harvest. Look back to when you were planting your seeds? What kind of seeds did you plant? I have heard people say, "I will do whatever I want to do." That may be true, but, you WILL NOT get to have whatever harvest you want to have...your harvest will be the direct result of your choices good or bad. You are able to chose your actions, but you cannot control the outcome of those actions. It is true that each or our actions are within our own power to command, but the result of those actions (our harvest) is what we are stuck with...there is no changing that.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground:
for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12
