135 – Did you know that your past does not define you? Only God does.

But don't you know someone who does define themselves by their past?

I have good friend who does. He still thinks of himself as mixture of being a victim of his father's emotional abuse and the recipient of his mother's tender love. 

Most health care and well-being professionals would agree that we're a mixture of the good and bad influences from our past and that they define who we are today.

But we are so much more than our past. In fact, from a spiritual perspective, your past does not define who you are at all. It may influence how you think and act, but is does not define you.

Only God does that.

God set the record straight for all time the way He originally created us in His image and likeness. This is who we really are. This is how God defines us.  

So the question is, if we are the image and likeness of God, who and what is God? Because, how you define yourself depends largely on how you define God. 

But it eventually comes down to how God "defines" Himself. Check out this previous episode, #51, How Does God See Himself?

What God is and how He sees Himself defines who you are.

There are lots of examples in the Bible of people who did not define themselves by their past and some who did. In this week's episode I talk about:

• Joseph, who was a slave, a prisoner but he didn't let those experiences define who he was
• The man born blind whom Jesus healed: the man and all society defined him by his past, but Jesus did not
• The woman caught in adultery: the Pharisees defined this woman by the sin she committed in the immediate past. Jesus acknowledged her sin but did not define her by it

Jesus focused on what was true in the kingdom of heaven. His vision was so clear, he could see past the society’s definition of who people were based on their past. He saw how people were defined in heaven: sinless, whole, unfallen from grace, and free.

Is it possible for you and me to see ourselves in this light as well? Yes of course it is. But it requir

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.

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