Sunday Rewind 2.2.09

This week, we began a survey of the only personal letter from Paul that exists in the Bible, Philemon. Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison to a wealthy man named Philemon about a runaway slave named Onesimus, who had stolen something and fled. It's a powerful story of change. Onesimus' encounter with the risen Christ changed his life drastically. It can do the same for us...if we're willing to live by two Biblical principles.

Principle #1: Don’t deny your problems; face them. A lot of people go through life denying that their problems exist. It's like holding a lit firecracker and telling yourself it isn’t going to blow up. But it will. And when it does, severe pain and destruction will happen.

So…what’s your problem? What's the lit firecracker in your life? Onesimus took a handwritten letter back to the guy who had the authority to kill him, trusting God with the results. God intervened, and He can for us, too.

What’s your problem...the thing that threatens to overwhelm you? Whatever it is, give it a name. Quit denying the problem. Allow God to change your life. Face it, despite the potential consequences. And trust God with the outcome.

Principle 2: Don’t focus on what was, but on what can be. When things happen, it’s so easy to get fixated on the past. It's like driving while looking only in the rearview mirror. All you see is where you've been. You miss where you're going.

Friends, we’ve got to quit focusing on what was, and instead, focus on what can be…on what God wants to do in the future. Onesimus used to be useless, but since being transformed, he is useful. He used to be just a slave, but now he is more, he is a brother in Christ. Formerly, he wasn’t of much help, but now everything has changed. Formerly he was one thing, but what once was is no more.

Formerly...but now. That’s the story of God’s grace. It’s our story. What we were, we aren’t anymore. God’s forgiveness means our old self is gone…completely gone. He doesn’t hold it against us anymore. So let it go. Quit hanging onto the past.

Allow the presence of God to grip your heart, and you will become something else…healed in the presence of God. Submit your heart to the goodness of God and he will make all things new.