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N E I L   A N D E R S O N   D A I L Y   D E V O T I O N A L
             from Freedom in Christ Ministries

October 26

EVALUATING YOUR PAST

It was for freedom that Christ set us free (Galatians 5:1).

How does God intend for you to resolve hurtful, controlling past
experiences? In two ways which we shall consider today and
tomorrow.

First, you have the privilege of evaluating your past experience
in the light of who you are now, as opposed to who you were then.
The intensity of the primary emotion was established by how you
perceived the event at the time it happened. Remember: Your
emotions are a product of how you perceived the event, not the
event itself. As a Christian, you are not primarily a product of
your past; you are primarily the product of the work of Christ on
the cross. The flesh, which represents how you processed those
events according to the world and without Christ, remains. But
you are able to render it inoperative.

When a present event activates that primary emotion, many people
believe what they feel instead of believing what is true. For
example, people who have been verbally abused by their parents
have a hard time believing they are unconditionally loved by
Father God. Their primary emotions argue that they are unlovable
to a parent figure. They believe what they feel and their walk is
off course. Believing the truth and walking by faith is what sets
us free.

Now that you are in Christ, you can look at those events from the
perspective of who you are today. Christ is in your life right
now desiring to set you free from your past. That is the gospel,
the good news that Christ has come to set the captives free.
Perceiving those events from the perspective of your new identity
in Christ is what starts the process of healing those damaged
emotions.

God's good news about our identity is revealed in 2 Corinthians
5:17: "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature;
the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." This
is what you must believe first in order to be set free from your
past.

Loving Lord, thank You for making me a new creation in Christ.
Help me walk away from anything in my past that is restricting my
freedom.


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This daily devotional is published and distributed by
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< http://devotionals.crosswalk.com >.
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